The Misery Machine - Justice for James Byrd Jr. | Black History Month | TRUE CRIME

Episode Date: February 15, 2021

In light of Black History Month, this week, Drewby and Yergy discuss the tragic murder of James Byrd Jr. in the small Texas town of Jasper in the late 1990's, and the Anti-Hate Crime legislation that was passed as a result.  The Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing: http://www.thebyrdfoundation.org A very special thank you to Levi for supporting our show as our highest tier patron! Levi's Adoption Fundraising Page: https://gofund.me/d658a3a7 Join Our Facebook Group to Request a Topic: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 Support Our Patreon For More Unreleased Content: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #themiserymachine #podcast #truecrime Source Material: https://bit.ly/3u7aCk7 https://bit.ly/2NsRpbq https://n.pr/3denCyb https://nyti.ms/3rTAsWO https://bit.ly/3akCA3T https://bit.ly/2ZjdUSQ

Hi, with the Misery Machine. I'm Yergy. And I'm Drewby. And in light of Black History Month, we're doing a case that surprisingly not enough people know about. And that's the death of James Bird Jr. Yeah, this is a very tragic case. It happened just before I entered high school. And it spurred very important hate crime legislation along with the Matthew Shepard case.

Absolutely. And if you're listening on YouTube, please hit like and subscribe. We just passed 3,800 subscribers. So thank you, everyone, for the help so far. Thank you so much. It means a ton to us. It does. But without further ado, the tragic case of James Bird Jr. Born on May 2nd, 1949 in Beaumont, Texas, James Bird Jr. was the third of nine children.

He was a son of James Bird Senior and Stella May Sharp Bird. His parents raised their family in an East Texas community called Jasper, and their lives revolved around church. While Bird's mother served as a Sunday school teacher, his father was a deacon at the Greater New Bethel Baptist Church. When James was younger, he also contributed to the church by singing and playing the piano. In 1967, James Bird graduated from Jasper Row High School as part of the last segregated class in its history. Despite an excellent academic record and encouragement from his parents, Bird did not follow his two older sisters to college. Instead, he married a few years out of high school and fathered three children named Renee, Ross, and Jamie. Bird works sporadically as a vacuum cleaner salesman but struggled with alcoholism and spent a few years in prison for petty theft.

Bird and his wife divorced in 1993, and he returned to Jasper in 1996 and set out to improve his life by entering Alcoholics Anonymous. His friends and family described him as a friendly father and grandfather who was charismatic and musically talented. And speaking of his talent and music, a documentary I watched on him had several people stating his talent, a singer, saying that he preferred to sing hymns, and he could play several instruments, but his instrument of choice was the piano. James Bird, then aged 49, accepted a ride from three men in the early morning of June 7, 1988. Sean Barry, who was 23 years of age, Lawrence Brewer, who was 31, and John King, who was also 23. The driver, Sean Barry, was the only one of the men who was acquainted with James Bird. However, Bird did not get his ride home that night.

night. Instead, the three men took Bird down a remote country road to a deserted area outside of town. The men proceeded to beat him, cover his face with spray paint, and even urinated and defecated on him. Then they removed his pants, chained him by his ankles to the pickup truck, and began to drag him for three miles. As you would expect from his ordeal, almost all of birds' front ribs were broken. Most of his body was covered in massive abrasions from the asphalt. His testicles were missing, and gravel was found inside of his scrodle sack. His knees, feet, and butt were worn down, as was the flesh on his left cheek, exposing his jawbone. Toes were missing.

Muscle was exposed on his legs. However, there were no injuries to Bird's brain or his skull. It was concluded that Bird was conscious in holding up his leg. his head and that he was alive during much of the dragging. Bird died about halfway along the route when his right arm and his head were severed from his body after he hit a culvert. Moreover, the formation of some of bird's wounds concluded that he was moving deliberately during the dragging to relieve the pain. The three men dumped what was left of James Bird's body in front of a chapel on Huff Creek Road. Now, different sources say different things. Some say this chapel was,

a memorial chapel near a graveyard, but I saw one source that said that this was an all-black church. If you know, please leave a comment down below if you're from the area. Immediately after committing such an evil act, the three men decided to attend a barbecue together, as if this was all completely normal. After investigating the area in which James Bird had been dragged, police found a wrench with Sean Barry's name on it, as well as a lighter inscribed with John King's prison nickname, possum. In total, there were 81 places where authorities found Byrd's remains. Within 24 hours after his body had been found, FBI immediately became involved. Birds murder was considered a hate crime due to John King and Lawrence Brewer, both being

well-known white supremacists. Sean Barry's major defense was that Brewer and King were almost entirely responsible for the crime, despite Barry himself being the driver. Brewer testified that Barry had cut Bird's throat before he was tied to the truck, but there was no evidence to suggest that Barry had done this. As a result, Barry was sentenced to life in prison instead of the death penalty. Barry is currently incarcerated in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Ramsey Unit and will first be eligible for parole in June of 2038 at the age of 63.

He is currently in protective custody and spends 23 hours per day in an 8 by 6 foot cell with one hour a day for exercise. Barry married Christy Markontel by proxy. Markontel was Barry's girlfriend at the time of the murder. They have one child together. So marriage by proxy, for those who aren't aware of what that is, is a marriage within the prison, but the bride or groom is not there. So they're doing this with a minister,

and either the bride or groom is on the phone, or they're both on the phone, or vows are being read in one place where, They're also being read in another. So you could be at a church and be, let's just say, the wife with a minister. And you could have the prison minister over at the prison with the husband, let's just say, in this case. And you're not there with each other. You have someone standing in.

Yeah. Didn't you mention some of these proxy marriages where they'll have a prison guard as the stand in? Yes. So you're like getting married to the prison guard almost. Some prisons are different. you can actually have your wedding in the lobby or at the prison chapel, but some are very strict and do it this way. Prior to the murder of James Bird, Lawrence Russell Brewer had already spent time in prison. He received a seven-year sentence from Delta County for two counts of burglary of a habitation

and was released on parole on February 10th of 1988. On May 9, 1989, he violated parole due to cocaine possession and was sentenced to 15 years concurrent to the previous sentence. He was again released on parole in May 2, 1991. He violated parole again in 1994 and was subsequently released on mandatory supervision on September 5, 1997. He claimed under oath that he joined a white supremacist prison gang with John King in order to safeguard himself from other inmates. This is where he befriended King. However, there was documented evidence that both were members of the Confederate Knights of America and a search of their residents found racial separatist paraphernalia.

A psychiatrist testified that Brewer did not appear to feel any remorse for the killing of James Byrd. He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death, which was carried out on September 21, 2011. The day prior, Brewer told reporters, and I quote, As far as any regrets, no, I have no regrets. No, I do it all over again to tell you the truth. Brewer ordered a gluttonous last meal that included two chicken fried steaks with gravy and sliced onions, a triple patty bacon cheeseburger, a cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and jalapinos,

a bowl of fried okra with ketchup, one pound of barbecued meat with half a loaf of white bread, three fully loaded fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, one pint of blue bell vanilla ice cream, a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts on top, and three root beers. When the meal was brought to him, he declared that he was not hungry and did not eat any of it.

So the meal was subsequently thrown out, and which then prompted state Senator John Whitmire to ask the Texas prison officials to end the 87-year tradition of giving last meals to condemned inmates. The prison agency's executive director responded by, stating that the practice had been terminated effective immediately. So this makes me angry for a few reasons. One, why was that meal not eaten or donated?

Exactly. That's so much food. Like, why not put it either in the mess hall to treat other people for good behavior? Or the guards? At least. Like, put it in the rec room or break room or whatnot. In the very least. And you could, I'm sure you could donate it.

Like, I just, I can't believe. It's just so wasteful. There's so many better options. then throw it out. And then on top of this, they're now no longer giving last meals. And, you know, we can have the argument if you feel death row prisoners deserve last meals,

but to think that this one act of obstinence ruins it for everybody seems a bit much. John King was a longtime friend of Sean Barry's. He had several problematic tattoos covering his body, including a black man hanging from a tree, white power symbols and slogan, and the patch for a gang of white supremacist inmates known as the Confederate Knights of America. In a jailhouse letter to Brewer that was intercepted by jail officials,

King expressed pride in the crime and said that he realized while committing the murder that he might have to die. John King is quoted as saying, regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history, death before dishonor, see Kyle, end quote. King's death penalty sentence was scheduled for April 24th of 2013. 2019, with all appeals denied two days prior. This was carried out at the Huntsville unit by lethal injection. Many aspects of Byrds murder call back to known lynching traditions that were common in the antebellum in Reconstruction era south, such as mutilation or decapitation, and then revelry, including barbecue or a picnic, during or after the lynching. On the day of his funeral, James Byrd's family church overflowed with over 200 attendees, including Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the president of the NAACP.

600 others mourned outside. NBA star Dennis Robman paid for all of Byrd's funeral expenses, while fight promoter Don King donated an additional $100,000 to support Byrd's family. The NWACP National Voter Fund, as well as other advocacy groups, made an issue of the case during George W. Bush's presidential campaign in the year 2000. Bush was accused of implicit racism since he, opposed hate crime legislation and refused to sign into law the proposed James Bird Jr. Hate Crimes Act. Bush also refused to attend Bird's funeral, citing prior engagements. On May 11, 2001,

the new Texas governor, Rick Perry, signed the James Bird Hate Crimes Act into law. This strengthened penalties for crimes motivated by victims race, religion, color, gender, disability, orientation, age, or other national origin in the state of Texas. The Byrd family also worked with Matthew Shepard's family to pass the Matthew Shepard and James Bird Jr. hate crimes prevention act, which was signed into law on October 28, 2009 by President Barack Obama, with two of Bird's sisters, Louvon Harris and Betty Boatner by his side. Activism surrounding Bird's murder drove these laws into place, effectively recognizing the importance of prosecuting violence motivated by racism and other bias-related crimes. Following Byrd's death, his family established the James Bird Foundation for Racial Healing, which conducts diversity workshops, offers scholarships to people of color, and runs oral history projects with more than 2,600 personal stories about racism.

Ross Bird, the only son of James Bird Jr., has been involved with the murder victim's families for reconciliation, which is an organization that opposes capital punishment. He campaigned to spare the lives of those who murdered his father, citing his criticism. Christian faith. Three sisters of James Byrd are Jehovah's Witnesses, and in a joint statement, they said, and I quote, having a loved one tortured and lynched produced an unimaginable sense of loss and pain, how does one respond to such a brutal act? Retaliation, hateful speech, or promotion of hate-ridden propaganda never entered our mind. We thought, what would Jesus have done? How would he have responded? The answer was,

crystal clear. His message would have been one of peace and hope, end quote. For Jasper, the reaction to the murder and trial first tended to divide along racial lines. For whites, and for many of the town's leadership, there was plenty of denial and a tendency to blame the media for making them look bad. But that went only so far. The defendants were found guilty and sentenced in the media left town. Jasper was left with its reputation as a hateful place. However, on January 20th, 1999, the People of Jasper rejoiced as the wrought iron fence that had separated the graves of black and white people in Jasper City Cemetery since 1836 was torn down. This particular cemetery being the final resting place of James Bird Jr. and later his mother. The city also erected a park in his honor, the James Bird Jr. Memorial Park.

In May of 2004, two white teens, Joshua Lee Talley and John Matthew Fowler were arrested in charge with criminal mischief for desecrating James Bird Jr.'s grave with racial slurs and profanities. They actually etched stuff into his grave. And if that were not disturbing enough, in 2010, an auction site devoted to selling items related to high-profile crimes and criminals, sold a bag of dirt from Bird's Gravesite and a piece of the road and dirt from the culvert where the murder had occurred. The highest bidder also would receive pictures from the road and Bird's Gravesite. I had no idea something just so exploitative, like that existed.

I didn't either. That didn't make any sort of news around here. When I was doing just some final research last night, I found that. I was like, oh, my goodness. Obviously, that's unethical. But the fact that they stole grave dirt, isn't that illegal? I don't know that it's necessarily illegal. I do know some sites do sell grave dirt for spiritual purposes.

However, it's just no. not tactful. It's nasty. You don't do something like that. I tried to find the, the auction and how much it went for, but I couldn't find anything like that. There was very little information on it. I only found this on two different sites. One was a paid site. I couldn't get behind the paywall. And then another just kind of gave the brief information that I supplied here, but I couldn't find anything more on it. I mean, obviously, there are different sites selling serial killer memorabilia or things of that nature, but this is a bit much. This is a victim's grave.

That's different than something a serial killer owned. And we can talk about the ethics of that, but I think it's pretty clear cut that doing this to a victim is just not acceptable at all. Another thing about this case before we finish up is that when reading about this, I didn't realize that this was 1998. So I did only because I remember this fresh in my memory because it was this summer before I started high school. And I couldn't believe something like this would even happen in this day and age.

Yeah, I thought this happened around the time of Emmett Till, like the 50s, the 60s. I thought that this is when this happened. I did not realize this happened in my lifetime. And truly not that long ago either. I mean, George W. Bush was about to become president. This was a very short time ago. And something like this happened, it's just absolutely unbelievable that something like this still goes on in this country. It's totally gross.

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