The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 82: The Men Behind Bars

Episode Date: November 7, 2017

A father and a son with more than just bars between them.

This is the way I heard it. Jimmy ran a very successful little business for a very large organization in a very competitive industry. After just two years, his revenues were in the tens of millions of dollars. His customer base was growing every week and his boss was pleased. Very pleased. But then, Nikki C. turned up dead and things got very complicated for Jimmy's little business. Nicky was not the biggest earner on Jimmy's crew, but he was in many ways the most important because Nicky was more than an earner.

He was the heart and soul of Jimmy's operation, and his death left a big hole, a hole that had to be filled immediately. But with whom? Jimmy set out to find a replacement for that which was irreplaceable. Meanwhile, across the country, a farm boy from Indiana wrestled with a very very, different challenge. Tracy's dad had been arrested for murder and sentenced to life in prison. But the conviction was clearly a bum-rap. The state had spent millions of dollars prosecuting Tracy's dad, while the defense had spent less than $7,000 defending him. Plus, the wise guy who allegedly

hired his dad to murder, the judge was released in some kind of plea bargain. And the judge who sentenced his father to life in prison, was a pallbearer at the funeral of the victim. The whole thing stunk, and Tracy was determined to get his dad an appeal. Of course, that would require the services of a real lawyer, and that would cost real money. So, the 24-year-old farm boy from Indiana did what he had to do. He assumed a new identity and went looking for a serious payday. Tracy had no real experience in this line of work, but he knew a guy who knew another guy who introduced him to another guy who arranged for a meeting with Jimmy. It was a pivotal moment for the kid from Indiana, and make no mistake, he was nervous when he walked into Jimmy's bar for a sit-down.

You know who I am? Tracy nodded. Yes, sir. You're Jimmy, though I'm not sure if that's what I'm. should call you. Sir. Jimmy smiled. The kid had an openness about him, an undeniable Midwestern likeability. That could be useful, assuming he possessed the other necessary qualities to replace a man of Nicky's talents. Jimmy and Tracy talked at length. Then Jimmy introduced his crew. It was important that everyone be comfortable with Nicky's replacement, critical, in fact. Jimmy even asked Tracy to have a brief conversation with a few of his best customers, including a professional psychiatrist to get a better sense of how Tracy might cope with the pressures and challenges of Jimmy's operation.

Ultimately, it was a leap of faith, but such decisions often are. Jimmy hired the kid from Indiana to fill Nikki's shoes, and to everyone's relief, the kid was a natural. As for Tracy, not only did the work come naturally, the money. The money was better than he imagined, a lot better. And soon, Tracy was able to hire the best attorneys in the country to revisit the dubious set of facts that landed his father in a maximum security prison. Tracy spent many years and many millions of dollars trying to get his father a second chance. But in the end, it was all for naught. Even the mighty Alan Dershowitz, with his Harvard law degree and his team of legal eagles, failed to get an appeal through the courts, perhaps because this wasn't the first time Tracy's dad had been charged with murder. Nor was it the second time. Truth is, Tracy's dad was a natural born killer, a professional hitman.

And even though the circumstances surrounding his final conviction were undeniably squishy, the totality of his life was not exactly consistent with that of a model citizen. And so, Tracy's dad was denied an appeal. He died behind bars 22 years after his son walked into one and interviewed for the job that changed his career. It's worth noting, however, that while Tracy worked for Jimmy, he kept his dad's personal drama to himself. Tracy knew that Jimmy's customers didn't want to hear a sad story about some kid from Indiana whose dad turned out to be a murderer. They just wanted to relax in a friendly place where everybody knew each other. Tracy also knew that Jimmy Burroughs had given him more than a chance to work in America's favorite.

bar, he had given him a chance to become America's favorite bartender, just like his predecessor, the actor named Nikki Colissanto, who you might remember, as the man everyone called, coach. That is how Tracy Woody Harrelson became Woody Boyd and wound up spending eight years behind the bar in a place called Cheers. And that's how his father Charles Void had Arrelson wound up behind a very different set of bars. In the end, both would go where people know. People are all the same. Both would go where everybody knows your name.

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