Small Town Murder - #10 - A British Tourist Murdered in Monticello, Florida

Episode Date: March 22, 2017

This week, we check out the small, tourist town of Monticello, Florida, where the senseless murder of a British tourist, and the attempted murder of another, starts to affect the tourism industry, and causes laws to change. Along the way, we find out where watermelons come from, what happens when the school can no longer afford to employ the lunch lady, and if there is anything worse than a haunted prison.Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!!Please subscribe, rate, and review!Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!Head to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder!For merchandise: crimeinsports.threadless.comCheck out James and Jimmie's other show: Crime in Sports Follow us on social media!Facebook: facebook.com/smalltownpodInstagram: instagram.com/smalltownmurderTwitter: twitter.com/MurderSmall Contact the show: [e-mail] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. What if you married the love of your life and then stood by them as they developed 21 new identities? What would you do? This Is Actually Happening is a weekly podcast that features extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who lived them. Listen to the newest season of This Is Actually Happening on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. This week, we look at Monticello, Florida, where the murder of a tourist sends the whole state into a panic. Welcome to Small Town Murder.

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Small Town Murder. Yay. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I am Jimmy Wissman. We're excited this week for this. This is good stuff.

We're very excited. Thank you guys so much for listening. Thank you for the iTunes reviews this week. Again, you guys are coming through so much for us on the iTunes reviews. And that's really what we ask, is just please, if you could, give us five stars. Tell us whatever you want.

Tell us, I like asparagus. We don't care. Another week on the fucking charts. It's great. We're so thankful to you guys for that. And we're going to keep working our asses off here to hope that you guys want to keep giving us reviews and keep listening.

Keep us on the charge. We are excited. Hope you enjoyed last week's Insanity, of course, the Kaler fella there. What the hell? Oh, my God. The grandma. Even the kids are horrible. I felt so bad.

But the grandma, you kill an 89-year-old woman in her own home? Terrible. In a small town. It's just disturbing. That's what happens, fellas. Stop pressuring your wives for threesomes. Just stop it. Yes, stop.

Don't do it. Just don't. No, if you have a wife, don't ask her for a threesome. Just enjoy what you got. Yes, exactly. If you don't enjoy it, get out. That's it. Go away.

That's all you have to do. It's not easy. Don't be finding chicks down at the gym to try to hook your wife up with a threesome because what ends up happening, she becomes a lesbian, leaves you, and you have to kill the entire family and nobody wants that. She realizes she doesn't want to put up with somebody that pressures her into having sex with multiple people. She'd rather just be with one person.

Why not? Who's probably much nicer to her, I would say. That was the other thing. I mean, I have to assume. I would think so. But tonight, we are in another place. We're in another place. Last week, we were in Kansas, hanging out in Kansas, going to the, whatever they had

there, the VFW parade. Dry fields. The dry fields. This week we are in Monticello, Florida. Ah, the swamp. Now, you had to think about it this way. I know everybody knows that a hacky joke is just Florida sucks. That's a hacky joke.

But it is a hacky joke. And jokes become hacky jokes for a reason. Stereotypes are usually there is some seed of truth in them. That's the point. You know what I mean? That's why they're funny. That's why they're funny. It's funny because it's true.

Exactly. So this is no exception. And it's funny that you would think within the first three episodes we would have hit a Florida. Because it's like anything where you're dealing with insanity. Took us ten. Took us ten to get to Florida. Because I'm trying to go all around the country and hit different spots. That lets you know that Florida's not the only ruined place.

No, God. America is a mess. That's the thing. You can think that Florida's the bad, you know, Florida's the problem. It's not the problem. Everywhere's the problem. We're discovering that. It's every single place there is.

But we're in Monticello, Florida tonight. Monticello, Florida is a northern, it's like northern on the panhandle like middle of the panhandle in the gulf yes exactly it's in jefferson county which is on the border of georgia so it's not the water side of the panhandle it is the top side the land side the land side the humid just shit wish they were on the beach swamp side yeah that is bad stuff here it's farmland mainly we'll get into this here zip Zip code 32344. Area code 850. Like I said, it's on the Georgia border there.

It's close to – only thing it's really close to is Tallahassee. It's 35 minutes to Tallahassee. That's the capital, right? That is the capital, yes. Three and a half hours to Orlando. So Disneyland is pretty much out of the question. You can fly there for most parts of the country faster. Four hours to Atlanta, so it's not that close.

You figure it's on Jordan. It's even three hours to Pensacola. It's remote. It is very remote, this place. It's a remote place with farmland. The only reason, well, now that people still live there, the I-10 goes about five miles south of town. The I-10 highway, which goes all the way from California to Jacksonville, Florida, coast to coast. So it's like Radiator Springs?

It's Radiator Springs, pretty much. The freeway was built, and now this town sucks. Well, now it sucks. Well, because then it's become a mess since then. It didn't start out that way, as we'll get into. First of all, too, we're very low to sea level in Florida. Every other state's like, every other city we've covered, it's like 1,000 feet. We're 233 feet above sea level here.

So this is some serious flat on the swamp, basically. Any slight wave and that whole state is going to go under. I swear to God. Anything. If the earth shakes over there a little bit, it's going under. That's all there is to it. You can find the water table pretty easy. Pretty damn easy.

Drilling a well ain't so tough. No. God, no. Simple. Simple. You just need a stick. There it is. Found it.

All right, then. Oh, it's salty. Shit. Move on. Like. Oh, it's salty. Shit. Move on. Like I said, elevation 233. 3.4 square miles. So it's a pretty small town in terms of area. The climate is just hot and sticky and awful down there.

It's warm in the winter. I looked up the weather. Like right now, they're in the 60s, which is nice. But then the average temperature is like 94 every day in the summer. Humid and nasty. Terrible. Not a place you want to really hang out and be. The history of this place.

As of 1850, there were only 320 people living in Monticello. That was then. By 1860, there was 1,000. Oh. Well, I'll give you a guess what happened. Oil. Railroad. Railroad.

Railroad. Railroad creates towns. I have no idea what industry happened. Oil. Railroad. Railroad. Railroad. Railroad. Railroad creates towns. I have no idea what industry is in America. Pretty much. That's crazy. That was a terrible guess. That wasn't bad. Oil.

There's no oil down there. We just said there's water under the ground. It's 200 feet above sea level. We'll find oil there. So anyway, well, there's oil in Louisiana. What a terrible guess. So, you know, that's sort of close. A panhandle.

Still a terrible guess. Not a great guess. The railroad. Any state we have, any city, any place we have that's not on the East Coast connected to the Atlantic Ocean, it's because it's there because of the railroad, basically. Nothing happened, railroad came, all of a sudden people came. Hey, there we are. I just realized why people give dumb guesses on fucking game shows, though, because that

was just on the spot, blurt something out. Yeah, you're like oh you're about oil where's the weirdest place that sex in the butt like those stupid things yeah yeah newlyweds right unreal so stupid so stupid and then you look at yourself and you just go i'm a fucking idiot how do i how do i have anything in my life at all yeah where did that come from i should be i should be homeless how do i pay a car payment with that kind of knowledge? Well, luckily they don't ask you quickly on the spot how cities were formed. Jimmy, you can either pay

$328 or quickly how was Yakima, Washington formed? Why? What happened? Oil. Wrong. $328, please. Every goddamn time I just hit oil. Oil. Fuck it. Damn it. I swear to God. I hope it's a question about Texas. Yes.

Texas or Oklahoma, maybe. Unbelievable. The county, Jefferson County here that we're in, is formed in 1827. Everything here is after Thomas Jefferson. They're really into Thomas Jefferson. It's Jefferson County, named after Thomas Jefferson. The city, Monticello, is named after Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello. But it's Florida, so they can't pronounce it properly.

It's Monticello. So that's what happens there. That's when white trash interprets French words. That's what you get. When white trash tries to refine itself. Exactly. And yes, the panhandle of Florida. Yeah, there's a lot of white trash there.

I don't care if you live there. You love it. It's great. Look to your left. Look to your right. You're going to see some white trash. I'm just telling you right now. My dad is from Jacksonville. There you go. It's not far away. He will tell you proudly your right. You're going to see some white trash. I'm just telling you right now. My dad is from Jacksonville.

There you go. It's not far away. He will tell you proudly, I'm white trash. That's what I mean. There's a reference in here later to Panama City, and I went, now, if you ask me quick on the spot, like, how is that town formed? White trashiest city in the country. Ah, Panama City, Florida.

That would be the first thing that comes out. So I'm glad that it's that guy. We're going to get some hate shit over this. Whatever. It's okay. I'm the one saying it's shit. At Jimmy P is funny. Bury me. Go ahead. It's fine. And defend Florida. Knock yourself out. I was the quintessential dirty white kid in the trailer park. We were white trash. I'll

make fun of white trash all day long. Yes, that's right. I can make fun of Italians. You make fun of white trash all you want. We got it. We've suffered through it. We have the white market corner. Let's go. That's it, man. So basically this place was cotton fields at this point. In the 1860s, 1850s when the railroad came, then you could grow cotton because then you

could take the cotton away on the railroad. So that's how it worked there. Okay, they cleared everything out. People came in, cleared out the forest, cleared out shit. We're growing cotton everywhere. Flatten this shit out to the ground. But the prices fluctuated in cotton. That's the thing, because the prices

would go up, they'd go down, depending on weather, depending on this and that. So, they needed something a little more steady. Like, we need an identity. Everywhere's got cotton. This is the South. I mean, it's all cotton, basically, at this point. So, what do they find? Citrus. They find watermelons. Watermelon, yeah. Watermelons. Fruits. Oil.

You're damn right. Oil. Pink oil. Pink oil. So yes, in 1882, William Syradu brought the first shipment of watermelon seeds to the region. That was not easy to find. By the 1920s, Jefferson County produced 80% of the world's watermelons. Is that right?

So every watermelon up to now, that came from there. 80%? 80%. That's a huge number. If you were eating a watermelon in the U.S., it's from this dumpy shithole here. It's actually kind of a cool historic town in certain aspects. As much as you can. As much as you can.

See, this is the thing. Like, I love history and I love culture and I like when you drive through the South, they have a lot of old shit. But half of it, you have to kind of go, oh, yeah, it's cool and it's historic, but it's not really celebrating a time that I really want to remember type of thing. It's like, oh, you owned people. It's a beautiful plantation house. I'm sure many slaves died there.

So it's very difficult. You guys grew 80 percent of the world's water amount. That's amazing. Oh, you forced people to cultivate it. You forced people. Well, the 1880s, they were sharecropping at that point, which is still forced. Same thing. So historically, the courthouse was built in 1908, and they still have it there.

It's still there. They used – they crazy built this thing really well. They used one-foot-thick concrete interior walls. It's really built like – it's a marvel, this thing. They modernized it for heating and cooling in 1968, but it's all still very original. The judge's bench and the jury box and a bunch of other furniture in the courtroom are still original oak from 1908, which is pretty damn cool. It's also known as the most haunted small town in America by ABC News.

I don't know what that means. I don't know if that's an official news. They discovered this, but it's the most haunted small town, especially the Jefferson County Correctional Facility. The prison is said to be insanely haunted. Like all the guards, the prisoners, everybody says it. Like, oh, no, no, yeah, you turn around, they'll be dancing ghost children around.

Like, literally, they're talking about guys, you know, mopping the floor, and they hear kids laughing, and they turn around, and there's, like, four kids playing tag there, and everybody sees it, and then they're gone. Like, all the guards, everybody, it's like, oh, yeah, no, no, there's tons of ghosts. Oh, there's shit here.

Yeah, they're all assuming that it's, like, the victims of the people in there and's like, oh yeah, no, no, there's tons of ghosts. Oh, there's shit here. They're all assuming that it's like the victims of the people in there and stuff like that too is like the main superstition down there. That's terrible. Yeah, it sounds frightening down there. It's this old ass jail where God knows what happens down there. So you beat the shit out of your cellmate for making him see shit. That's it, right? He did it.

It's his fault. That's right. You made those kids come. You made them come. Why'd you kill them, you asshole? I was trying to mop. Now they're fucking with me. I'm just trying to clean up the shit. I'm mopping these fucking kids you killed. Thanks a lot, asshole. I'm cleaning up the riot that you caused yesterday, too. You jerk.

So on the town site, they're very proud of their town. Their motto is, quote, the heart of natural North Florida, which is a goddamn awful town motto. The heart of natural North Florida. I guess it's as opposed to not natural. It's phony. Florida, which is a goddamn awful town motto. The heart of natural North Florida. I guess it's as opposed to not natural. It's phony. As opposed to the phony part in Miami.

Their little description of their own town on their site is, quote, small town values, guided growth, preservation of historical, cultural and natural heritage are just a few of the core principles that make the city of Monticello a wonderful place to call home. Sounds like it. It's fantastic. Apart from that haunted fucking prison. Yeah, and also, too, they are looking for a job opening for a police officer, just one. One police officer and a water specialist, too. I don't know what that is, but if you know anything about water and you live in Florida, get on up to Monticello. They're looking.

There's not a lot of people there. That's why there's jobs. Population, 2,411. Wow. Not a lot. No. Been dropping since the 90s. It's down 6.3% since 2000. So people are kind of filtering out of there.

Median age there is older than normal. It's 44.2. Okay. Median normal is about 37 and a half. Fascinating. So a little older crowd. All of the age groups from zero to 34 are lower than the national average in people. All those age groups.

It's all older people. And then all of the age groups above like 35 and above are all above average, which makes sense. I mean, it's I mean, that's that's generally how it's been in most of the towns, too, is that everybody kind of older people. Yeah, it's an older people move there. They're tired of the city life or just don't get out at all. Yeah, we've had one or two with the town being the younger skewing town for some reason. A lot of times it's a town where people just started moving there kind of a thing. It's that sort of thing.

But here, we're not getting that. A hipster gentrification of a small town. Yeah, exactly. They're coming in, they're putting up antique shops everywhere. Watch out. So every group, like I said, over 35, many more 60 plus people. That's the big one. Almost twice the average of people that are single with no

kids. I assume old would be that. Must be. It's got to be the old people. Twice the amount of divorced people as average. Really? Yeah. 20% are divorced, 10% average. So that's very odd. That's interesting. Twice the amount of widows. Again, old. So we're dealing with old people that maybe started they were farming watermelons and now they're not anymore and they're just relaxing.

The way the race breaks down, 45.74% white. This is the first town we've had that's less than half white. Yeah. It's a 62% average. 49.39% black. Wow. Yeah, 12.24% average. All these southern towns, a lot of them are very racially

diverse because florida too florida has some florida has a high population of black people oh absolutely yeah florida is yeah there's florida's a very diverse state when it comes to it's cool 0.0 percent asian obviously five percent's the average for almost five percent hispanic about 16.9 is average so you know not that many hispanics there i guess they're slowly getting over to that region. Now, the religious and the religious thing here, they're 62% religious, which is well above the 49% average. Yeah. That's a lot.

Last week in Kansas, we only had 40%. Yeah. Big swing here. Only like 2% Catholic, 7% Pentecostal. That's a lot of that Baptist shit in there. And then we get into 25% Methodist and 23% Baptist. You betcha. Some fire and brimstone shit down there, man.

This is some, you go to church, you come home scared down there. It's not necessarily, like in a lot of churches that are just Christian churches, it's a message of how to be a good person. This one is like lecturing you about being a piece of shit. You sit down and you go, you watch your fucking ass. And then you leave. That's it. And you put some money in and you go home.

That's it down there. You look in your rear view the whole way home. Is that God back there? Shit. I knew they're coming for me. Jesus is pissed. I heard he's pissed. I don't know.

Now, 0.0% Jewish, 0.0% Muslim. Not surprising in a small southern town. 51% Democrats, 48% Republicans. Is that right? Which is, Florida's a weird place, man. It's a weird place. They're very contrary in Florida. You never know with them.

They are. Very contrary. They're very contrary. They're very contradictory, too. Yeah, both of those things. How about that word? Yes, contrary and contradictory. I'm telling you right now.

Jobs, unemployment is exactly at the national average. Household income, a little less than normal. It's $40,000. It's about $53,000 is exactly at the national average. Household income, a little less than normal. It's $40,000. It's about $53,000 is the average. All the groups basically between $0 and $75,000 a year are above average. Most people, 35% of the people make between $20,000 and $50,000 a year. So it's a blue-collar area basically, but not completely. 2% make more than $150,000 a year, which is

10 percent is the usual average. This is an area of haves and have-nots. This is, there's people that have beautiful homes, and they're stately, and there's this sort of thing, and then there's people who live in utter squalor, basically. That's what it is. It's hardcore haves and have-nots. This is not a town

of everybody's kind of equal, like that town in Ohio, everybody was kind of nice. Eaton, Ohio, we did that sort of thing. This is not a town of everybody's kind of equal. Like that town in Ohio, everybody was kind of nice. That Eaton, Ohio we did. This is not that at all. The jobs, there's actually some farming jobs and fishing jobs there, which is about twice the average of that. Twice the health care jobs there. You're really driving inland quite a lot. That's a hell of a commute to go be a fucking shrimper.

A bunch of lakes maybe. Who the hell knows? Somebody poked a hole in the ground and they said, man got motion now pull the shrimp pull the shrimp out come on before it closes up uh like i said old so twice the health care jobs uh four times the social services job social service jobs because like i said haves and have nots there's a lot of people that need social services cost of living there is 84 out of 100 so 100 being the average cost of living. 84 here. Utilities are slightly less. Groceries are slightly more. Housing is low. Housing is 48 out of 100. So it's half. That's not bad at all. 50% of the houses are between $100,000 and $200,000. Median home price is $90,000.

How about that? $185,000 is the average. So not bad at all. Not a ton of high-end housing, though. There's some, and then it's mainly pretty low-end. And if you're looking for something in the Monticello area, maybe you're a water specialist, too, or you're going to be that police officer, we have the Monticello Real Estate Report for you right now. You can get, first of all, if you want a two-bedroom apartment, $680 is the average there. That seems fair. That's fair. If you want a two-bedroom apartment, $680 is the average there. That seems fair.

That's fair. $1,027 is average. So, you know, whatever. Now, if you want a little house, three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,216 square foot, which is a decent size. It looks like a trailer. I'm not going to lie to you. It probably is one. It looks like a trailer with siding on it. It's not great.

It says it's a home, but it looks like a trailer that's been bolted to the ground. Like, it's a house now. No, it's not. $75,000 for that bad boy. Wow. Not bad. Now, three bedroom, two bath, 1,350 square foot house that looks like an actual home that was built on a foundation and not dragged there and bolted to the earth is $149,000.

That's solid. And if you want to go crazy, if you're one of these rich people down there, you're one of the haves. Five bedroom, five bath, 4,400 square feet on a beautiful sweeping lawn. You know, the big, the grounds. Yeah. $425,000. Something terrible happened in that house, too.

Oh, you just know it. You know they did. Oh, God. Anything that's been built in the South. Yeah. Pre-1950. Five bedrooms, five bath. Bad things have happened.

Yeah. No doubt. So, town is having problems money-wise, as we'll get into. This ties into our case big time here. In 2008, I found on a message board, I really went hardcore on this. Someone posted, they live in the town, and they posted in the town how bad the town has gotten and how broke the town is, that they cannot afford anything. The poster that posted this said that they recently had to lay off the lunch lady at the middle school because they couldn't afford it. What?

They can't afford the lady in a hairnet slopping out spoonfuls of sloppy joe. That's a problem. So they got somebody working double shifts doing something and then filling in on the lunch line, too? They probably have kids back there. They got the janitor that just wrangled the shit out of the toilet and then he's going to go serve you a sloppy joe? That's probably what poor kids have to do for their free lunch. Put some gloves on back there and scoop out the sloppy joes. Earn your keep, Oliver. Yeah, earn your keep. That's probably what poor kids have to do for their free lunch put some gloves on back there scoop out the sloppy joes all of her yeah earn your keep that's probably what it is down there good lord or maybe they just forced them to do it in the history of this

tradition of the south let's see here four-year diploma in here's about half the the average i think people run screaming from here plus their cities you know three hours that way half hour that way they're like i'm going somewhere where i can get a different kind of a job, not picking watermelons. I'm worried about what happened to the lunch lady. Where the hell did she end up going? I don't know. I feel bad for the lunch lady. I feel like the lunch lady is now looking for those social services that we talked so much about earlier. She's our first victim in this story.

She really is. She's our first victim. Poor lunch lady Doris. Is that the Simpsons lunch lady Doris? Yeah, well, we'll call her Doris then. Let's just call her Doris in honor of the Simpsons. Poor Doris. Everybody give a moment of silence for Doris, the lunch lady who can no longer afford... And her job. And her job, exactly. She can no longer afford scratcher tickets, which I figure Doris really, she's scratching a lot.

She's scratching. She's got the flakes on her chest. Yes, absolutely. Now, before we get into the crime, if you go there, if you're in Monticello, Florida, and you need something to do, things to do in Monticello, we have a lot of them. There's farmer's markets, historical buildings, all of these haunted old plantation houses

are now bed and breakfast. So you can sit in the lap of luxury after you've gone to one of their local vineyards and sit there and bask in the horrors of the past. Why not? Also, too, they have 42 19th century buildings within 27 blocks. Wow. So it's a very historical area.

42 of them? 42 19th century buildings within 27 blocks. It's called the Monticello Historic District. It's a great thing. And also, too, now, Monticello Opera House. Now, if you're at the Monticello Opera House, outside the Monticello Opera House don't know and if you're at the Monticello Opera House outside the Monticello Opera House on June 27th is the annual Monticello Watermelon Festival oh god that's what they're into watch out for that complete with a with a seed spinning contest

of course there is absolutely is and you can also volunteer as a lunch lady in your spare time somebody god there's you know there's some poor mother like, I'll do it fine, some lady volunteering. I want to do a live show at that fucking opera house. I do, too. I have a feeling they'd kill us after this, though. We'd get lynched. We'd get lynched and our ghost would be haunting the prison after that. We don't need that.

I don't want my soul to stay in Florida ever. We've got to hire union employees to run the fucking opera house, too. By the way, we make fun of Florida, but we live in arizona which if you hear crazy shit you go is that florida or arizona which one is that so believe me we're west florida that's all it is it's all it is minus a beach let's get into the crime here which is our you know our forte and then we get into the crime that happened the crime rates down there property crime burglary larceny, theft is right about U.S. average for any town.

Now, the violent crime rate, murder, rape, robbery, assault is more than twice the average rate. Wow. More than twice. Those old people are horny. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of poor people. And also, too, the I-10 being right there doesn't help either.

You literally have people fighting out drug wars on the I-10 type of thing right there. So that's not helping their whole cause either because the I-10, if you're not from the U.S., like I said, it goes from the West Coast to the East Coast all across the south part of the country. So if you want to take drugs from coast to coast, just stay on one road. There you go. You got it. So it's pretty interesting here. Doris is out there taking out her vengeance too, raping and murdering people for losing her job. She is.

She's pissed. She's fucking pissed. Poor Doris. Poor Doris. We're clobbering Doris. She hung up her plastic gloves, and she's like, last time I'm going to be here. These plastic gloves are going to come in handy. I'm going to go strangle people.

So September 14th, 1993. This is what we're leading up to. September 14th, 1993, a man named Gary Colley is in town. He's a 34-year-old truck driver from Wilsdon, Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. Okay, he's visiting. That sounds beautiful. That sounds nice. I don't know if it is, but it sounds picturesque, doesn't it?

It does. UK people, tell us if that's beautiful because it sounds wonderful. I didn't look up pictures. I don't know if it is, but it sounds picturesque, doesn't it? It does. UK people, tell us if that's beautiful. It sounds amazing. Because it sounds wonderful. I didn't look up pictures. I don't know. He's here with his girlfriend, Margaret Jagger. They're visiting Florida on vacation.

First of all, the UK sounds like a wonderful place because a truck driver can afford to travel to another continent for a vacation. That's pretty goddamn nice. If you're a truck driver here, you're not hopping oceans for shit. No. Nothing. You're like, we're going to Panama City for vacation. That's where we're. If you're a truck driver here, you're not hopping oceans for shit. Nothing. You're like, we're going to Panama City for vacation. That's where we're going. We're not going there. That's so funny. My dad is white trash and he's a trucker.

No, he's not going anywhere. He's not going to another country for vacation. He's not going to South Africa for vacation. Maybe Mexico. He could wander down there, but nothing that's not attached to us. A four-hour drive south, that's it. Nothing that's not attached to us by earth. He's not even going to Canada.

No, that's far. It's all the way the hell up there. So the couple, basically, they have a rental car. They're here on vacation. I don't know. They're touring. I don't know what they did. If they went to Disneyland and decided to tour around.

I don't know what the hell you're doing as a tourist in the panhandle, unless they probably heard there's a lot of historic stuff around here. Maybe, you know, go check that out. Because if you're from another country, you want to see the history in somewhere. If I go to Europe, I want to see, show me your oldest shit. Yeah. You know what I mean? Show me the parliament.

Show me one of those guys that doesn't move. Got anything Hitler didn't blow up? I'd like to see it. You know what I mean? I'd like to check it out. Can you show me a shell you were going to use to blow him up? Yes. I'd like to see that.

I'd like to see that, too. Any tanks or anything like that? So they stop on the I-10. It's a little after midnight. They stop on the I-10, and they decide to take a rest. It's a rest stop. Of course. In America, I don't know if you're from overseas, we have along the road every few miles, we

have a rest stop, or they have a bathroom, and people jerk each other off in the woods, basically. That's what happens. That's what happens at rest stops. They sell each other meth. Right. They jerk each other off. It's every about 400 or 500 miles, and it's a place where- Well, less than that, usually. Yeah.. That's what happens. That's what happens at rest stops. They sell each other meth. Right. It's every about 400 or 500 miles. And it's a place where-

Well, less than that, usually. Yeah. Maybe it's like 300. It's about a gas tank. It depends on where you are, honestly. Because there's some places where they're more, if you're out further in the middle of Texas or something. But that's what it's for.

So you can stop and pee or get a handy. That's it. That's what they're there for. So they're there. They're resting. Yeah. They fall asleep in the rest stop. Yeah. You know, they think it's fine. People do that, too. People do that all the time So they're there. They're resting. They fall asleep in the rest stop. People do that too.

People do that all the time. They pull in. They're tired. Rather than crash in the side of the road, I'll just take a little quick nap here, half hour, and we'll be good. So sounds nice. There's a lot of truckers, a lot of action, a lot of shit going on. They think it's safe. It's fine.

Okay. So they're resting. A little after midnight, two men come up on either side of the windows, one on the passenger, one on the driver, and they knock on the windows. They were trying to rob the couple. So welcome to America. There you go. This is what you get. Sorry.

You come to Florida, you get robbed. Sorry, guys, or anywhere else for that matter. Now the driver, Colley, who's Gary Colley, he's a truck driver, he tries to back up but runs into another car that had pulled in behind them. Oh, God. So now they're trapped. Both of the men on the that had pulled in behind them. Oh, God. So now they're trapped. Both of the men on the outside open fire on the car. Oh, shit. They start shooting at the car.

They riddle Collie with bullets. They hit Margaret Jagger as well. A fatal shot hits Collie in the neck and goes into his chest cavity and kills him. So this guy comes all the way from England. He's driving a goddamn truck, saving up for a nice vacation. He says, we're going to go to Florida. We'll go to America. That's the other thing, too. I could see someone coming from England because they's driving a goddamn truck, saving up for a nice vacation. He says, we're going to go to Florida. We'll go to America. That's the other thing, too.

I could see someone coming from England because they say sunny Florida. In England, the one thing they do not have is fucking sun. There's no sun. So they're like, sunny Florida. That sounds good. We'll drive around and rent a car. This will be great. We'll have an American adventure.

Mickey Mouse is there. What could go wrong? It's beautiful. Fucking Mickey Mouse robbed him blind and shot him dead. So this is very sad. We're laughing, but it's sad. Mickey Mouse robbed him blind and shot him dead. So this is very sad. We're laughing, but it's sad. Mickey Mouse robbed him blind. Robbed him blind.

No word on whether the Salons had a Mickey Mouse head on. I'm not sure about that. It's possible. Could have been someone from the park. Pluto on the other side. Yes. So Kali is killed right there. Jagger survives, though.

She survives her wounds. She's tough. She drags herself across the parking lot. Not a girl. No cell phones back then. 1993. Right. So you want to make a call, you have to drag yourself to a pay phone.

She's got a pager. Yeah, maybe. It probably doesn't work on this side of the pond either. She's like, shit. Outgoing, that's for sure. No. So she drags herself to a pay phone and calls for help at the rest stop. First of all, no one see this poor woman, bloody, shot, dragging herself to a pay phone.

Nobody sees her. So she, I don't know if they were kind of in a corner. They probably went in a darker place to rest. I have no idea. Not be bothered. Absolutely. So it's really messed up, too. There's bloody fingerprints left on the phone.

It's one of those things, you know. So she calls. She ends up surviving. They take her to the hospital, which is terrific. This is the ninth killing of a tourist in Florida in the last year. Holy shit. People are freaking the fuck tourist in Florida in the last year. Holy shit. People are freaking the fuck out. I can imagine.

They're losing their mind because Florida's number one thing that they have is tourism. That is their number one industry. It's a $30 billion a year industry at this point. My God. Yes, in 1993. $30 billion. $30 billion. That is the lifeblood of the state.

Now, if people think if I go to Florida, I might get killed, they're not going to go to Florida. Right. Go somewhere else with their vacation dollars. Take my $30 billion over to fucking Georgia. Yeah, I'll go to Six Flags. You know what I mean? I'll go to Six Flags and stuff. Go anywhere else.

Anywhere. I'll go to Kansas or New Mexico. Chances are I won't be killed at a rest stop. So this is a big deal. It's bad for publicity. Damage control time, basically. It's there like, what the fuck do we do? Bad for publicity.

Damage control time, basically. It's they're like, what the fuck do we do? So they end up enacting a whole bunch of things that we'll talk about to try to make it look safer, I guess, to people and look like they're doing something. So at this point, they end up through some informants and through some pretty decent police work finding these people. They end up finding four teenagers and arrest them. They are Cedric Green, who is 13 years old. One, three. 13 years old. He's charged with murder and attempted murder.

They're all going to be charged with murder and attempted murder. They're being held for that at this point. They're not charged yet. Daron Spear, who is 16 years old, and Cedric's half-brother. So these two go together, and they'll go together later also. Andra Akins, who is 14 at the time. That's a girl. No, that's a boy. That's a boy? And also. Andra Akins, who was 14 at the time. That's a girl.

No, that's a boy. That's a boy? Andra? Andra Akins, 14 years old. So we have 13, 16, 14. 14. Unreal. And John Cromiti.

Cromiti? Cromiti. I don't know how you say this. A news broadcast said it three different ways. So we're going to call him Cromity. Okay. Cromity. Let's call him Cromity. Cromity.

Because that sounds more friendly. He goes by Billy Joe. So we're going to call him Billy Joe from now on. What the fuck? Billy Joe. I never heard of a black guy named Billy Joe either. That's a weird one. It's very strange.

It's a terribly hillbilly white name. That's a hillbilly name. These are four black teenagers, though. For Bobby Wayne. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. Four black teenagers have just killed a very white British tourist in Florida, and it doesn't

look good. No. And it's a bad thing because this is when race stuff starts to spark up. Barely teens. Barely teens. Barely. And some people are mad at this fact. I don't know what it is with the kids, but three of the kids, Aiken, Spear, and Green,

they're all not from this area. Billy Joe is a local. He's a local. The other three were from Tallahassee and were brought into Monticello as a program that helped kids grow up in better environments. And then this happens, and it's bad, so the people are pissed off down there, which, I mean, Jesus, 98% of the kids don't go shoot tourists and that probably helps their lives. So I'm not saying that this is a, but it is what it is, you know? So people are a little freaked out about the whole thing, obviously. The thing that people fear is that these kids will act out and that's what these kids did.

Yeah, that's what they did. And it's, it's, it's sad here. So, um, so September 17th, 1993, this is a three days later, uh, Billy Joe's cousin, Thad Cromedy, is questioned by police. I've never heard of a black guy named Thad either. That's a new one for me. I think I've heard of a couple. Really?

I feel like I have. Jesus. You must. That's, wow. I run in some tight circles with some cool people. Yeah, you do. A lot of Thads. A lot of Thads in this room.

A lot of gangster Thads. A lot of Thads. You know. They take him in and they question him about the whole thing because he said to have some knowledge about this. They strap him up to a polygraph test, an actual one, not a copy machine. Not a copy machine. Not a copy machine.

He says yes to the question of whether John told him, whether Billy Joe told him that he and Andra Akins shot Collie and Jagger. He answered no to whether he, Thad, who was being interviewed, was present at the shooting. Both of these answers are deceptive, police say. So that's a problem right away. That's an issue. They're like, OK, what's going on? Now they don't know what's up. Investigators ask him about the lies.

And Thad says that, quote, he did not believe that he, quote, did not believe that John had the intestinal fortitude to do such a deed. OK. First of all, he used a guerrilla monsoon wrestling term, intestinal fortitude. Have you ever heard the word intestinal fortitude? No. The only time I've ever heard of that is like in a deed. Okay. First of all, he used a Gorilla Monsoon wrestling term, intestinal fortitude. Have you ever heard the word intestinal fortitude? The only time I've ever heard of that is like in a doctor's office. The only time I've heard of it is like 1989 WWE wrestling and Gorilla Monsoon would be like, the intestinal fortitude, he's coming back.

It was Hulk Hogan as he was getting beat down by a fat guy at intestinal fortitude. That's it. So investigators decide to believe him, saying that he failed the polygraph but appeared to have satisfactorily explained his problems with the questions. So basically he said, yeah, I said that he shot him because that's what I heard

but it came out a lie because I don't think in my heart that he could have actually done it. Which sounds like full of shit, but it also could be true. I don't know. It sounds to me like somebody is trying to explain away his answers, though. That's the other thing, too. I love that, too. A polygraph, if you do something, they bring you in.

Normally, you can't explain away your deceptive answers. Like, oh, no, no, we thought he was lying, but he's fine. They just go, no, he's lying. Fuck him. Oh, that makes sense why my machine's off. All right. Yeah, all right. Okay, fine.

Yeah, I get it now. Go forward now. So just to make sure, we're good now. So just to make sure, police have Thad wear a wire and question Billy Joe Crummety about the murder. All right. Which is interesting. Now, September 30th, with all of this done, Thad signs a sworn statement that John admitted that he and Andre Ankins shot Colleen Jacker. So he signs that, and we have some tape on it later that we'll talk about here.

Now, defense attorneys at this time are saying that Thad should be a suspect. Yeah, I mean. He blew the question of whether he was there or not, and then also blew the one about whether his cousin shot it. So it sounds like he was there, and the guy he says shot him didn't shoot him. That's what it sounds like from his lie detector. So it sounds to me, too, but. Yeah, it's an interesting thing.

In the statement, Thad said that he had drove three of the suspects to steal a car earlier in the evening, but he denied being there for the shooting. He was just like, I helped him steal a car, but then I went home, basically, is what he's saying. I have my preconceived notions right now about what's going on. What's happening. I'm going to let it unravel, but I'm getting real fucking mad is what I'm getting. Well, this is a frustrating case. It really is because you can never know what happened. And but it's it's really difficult.

We'll get into this here. October 22nd, 1993, about three weeks later after the statement, all four teens are officially charged as adults with first degree murder and second degree attempted murder. They believe Akins fired the shots that killed that hit Jagger and they believe Billy Joe killed colleague. That's their thought on this. Mike Schneider, who's in the state assistant state attorney, said, quote, in terms of where we end up, that may mean we actually seek the death penalty against the shooters. Wow. So they're talking about going for the death penalty against a 14 and a 16 year old. Killing kids, man. That's, I don't ever believe in that, honestly.

Because I was a jerk off when I was 14. I didn't kill anybody, thankfully. But if I had to be held responsible now for every dumb thing I did when I was 14, I'd be fucked forever. I'd be in prison forever. That's what I mean. So it's not great, but they hold these four without bond, and Florida's not fucking around. They had already executed three people in that year of 93. Wow.

So they got the electric chair working down there. They did not screw around. So if you were up for the death penalty, that was some serious shit. That was a little scary. Yeah, they weren't just holding that up as a maybe at that point. So several witnesses, mostly Thad, told police that Spears, Akins, and Crummety had told people around the housing projects they lived in that they needed to steal a car to, quote, go on a mission later that night. Okay. That was the afternoon.

Go on a mission. I don't know what mission you're going on to kill British tourists apparently. What do you think you are? From 007? We're going on a mission. I guess that was to sound cool. We. Go on a mission. I don't know what mission you're going on to kill British tourists, apparently. What do you think you are, from 007? We're going on a mission. I guess that was to sound cool. We're going on a mission. We've got to steal a car. We've got to go on a mission.

Do they think they were doing something exciting? Are they getting foreign secrets? What are they doing? No, they're going out to try to rob a tourist. Thinks he's a guy from True Lies? He's going to go get Jamie Lee Curtis because he's on a mission? Exactly, he's on a mission. Later that afternoon, they return with a 1990 Pontiac Bonneville that fits the description

of the vehicle in the attack. Okay. So, yeah, this is when they pick up Cedric Green, the 13-year-old. They come back to the projects. Hey, look at our car. Yeah. They grab their, you know, dude's little brother, hop in. They go take off.

Here we go. Let's do it. So several hours after the shooting. Off to the mission. Got a mission to go on. Grab the 13-year-old. They play Mission Impossible theme song the whole way.

You got a mission. A 13-year-old is the one. They alternate between that and the Shaft theme song, which just makes everyone feel cool. You know what I mean? Just makes everyone feel cool. Shaft is a pretty bitch. It is. Once again, in The Wire, they would jump in. They used to do this back in Baltimore. The homicide book

they talk about, they would drive down the street to whatever the detectives with the shaft soundtrack playing. That's hilarious. Because it was fun, basically. It's cool, man. It is cool. So, witnesses say several hours after the shooting, Spear and Akins went to Spear's 16-year-old girlfriend's house and dropped

off a.22 and a.38 caliber revolver. Uh-oh. That's bad. That's not great. They later returned and retrieved the guns. The guns were never found by anybody, by the police. Also, Thad said that he overheard Billy Joe and Spear and Akins discussing the crime with Billy Joe's mother and stepfather. What? They're discussing the crime at home.

That's with their parents. I didn't want to tell my parents if I had a shit report card coming. I'm not going to tell them, oh, yeah, by the way, we just shot a couple people while we tried to rob them and arrest them. Oh, my God. Unbelievable. My mom questioned me about sticky socks and stuff, and I lied about that. Forget about this. No, this is crazy.

I was following my socks. Yeah, you know what happened there, but I also shot a guy. I'm like, what is going on here? I'm pretty sure she already knew what was going on in the laundry so duron spear told the group quote nobody's got to worry we ain't gonna get caught that's what he's telling chill the fuck out basically he's doing like the obama meme yeah fuck out i got this shit it's one of those so he claims that billy joe and his mother at this point thad claims this billy joe and his mother burned the clothes and shoes that he was wearing that night during the crime.

Wow. So that's – And mom's now an accomplice after the fact, brother. I guess, yeah, if they believe that. Now, they were heard telling others about the crime too around the projects. They were bragging. Jesus. I guess that's –

That's what 13-year-olds do. That's what I mean. These are kids. They can't do anything and not say anything about it. You know what I mean? If they robbed a bank, they couldn't just shut the fuck up and have $10 million in the past 10 million. Right. Especially if everybody else in the neighborhood is going to be scared of them or... Think they're

cool. They went on a mission. They had to tell everyone what the mission was. This is the mission. We got this. Great. And they ended up they got no money or anything. Completely bungled robbery. They got nothing but they killed people. They killed people and ran away. It was as stupid as you can get. Yeah.

So also, too, there's that tape conversation from Thad. It is on tape, Billy Joe saying, quote, I shot her two times. So that's not great for Billy Joe. That's pretty incriminating to have your voice on tape. Now, also, too, if Thad was there, I could see if he was bragging to someone outside the group that he did it and he didn't do it really. But if Thad, we thought Thad was there. Right. So now we definitely don't think Thad was there because he's talking to him. Right.

Exactly. He's getting a story out of him. And he's telling him how many times he shot her. Yeah, it's not like, you saw me, asshole. If he was there, then he would have known. Yeah. Hey, dickhead, you were there. You saw how many times I shot her.

What do you mean how many times I shoot her? Yeah. You heard how many times it shot her. What do you mean how many times I shoot her? Yeah. So... You heard how many times it went off. Yeah. Now, at this point, Thad was out on probation, or out on parole, but they put him back away because he said he held them still and steal a car. So in December, he's returned to prison

on a parole violation. Thanks for your help. Thanks a lot. To finish out a seven-year robbery sentence. He should have made a deal. Holy shit, yeah. If you're going to put on, you know, recording devices and all this shit, you better have a deal in place. Don't put batteries in this shit until you tell me this shit's over. Attorney.

I do this and we're good, right? Yeah, exactly. Jefferson County Sheriff Ken Fortune said, quote, we have a good little community here. Three summers ago, the Ku Klux Klan came to town and tried to recruit, but it didn't take long for them to realize they had come to the wrong place. So they're saying, look, we get along racially. Black on white crime doesn't fucking matter. We're going to sort this out.

We're a town. And there's literally like a bunch of quotes of people like, look, we don't fucking play that shit here. Racism, we don't play race shit here. We've been all together for too long. And it's like 50-50, too. So that's where there's no... But here's the thing.

Why'd they come there? You know what I mean? Yeah. The KKK is not coming here. No, no. They're not coming here and openly asking people to join. Well, they say, there's a small town of watermelon-picking fame. Let's go recruit them.

Throw your sheets on. Let's go get some friends. Let's go. Come on. Let's go grab—I'm in the mood for some watermelon anyway, so let's just head on down there. If nothing else happens, we got a refreshing watermelon. It's fine. So now after this, Green and Spear, the two half-brothers, 13 and 16, they plead guilty to – Green pleads guilty to accessory to murder before and after the fact.

Wow. And he's sentenced to a juvenile offender program in South Florida. It's a juvenile community control program. It's basically house arrest and probation. Okay. No jail for this kid at all. What a terrible, terrible deal. No, but he's 13, too, so it's like, what do you do with that anyway?

They send him down to South Florida to put him in a program. We'll find out if it works, okay, because I have some info on that. Spear pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery and conspiracy after the fact to the murder and receives eight years in prison for that. Okay. And he's 16. He's 16 years old. Now, September 14th, Billy Joe is offered a plea deal similar to other people's that

we're going to get to in a second, similar to Aiken's, which we'll find out in a moment here. On the eve of the trial, they offer him a plea deal. Deal is to plead guilty to second-degree murder. He would serve 15 years, and he's been in for two years already. So he's already got two years' time served. They're looking at him being out in eight with good behavior, basically, if he takes this deal.

He turns it down. Oh, God. They have him on tape saying he shot people. There's murder in the air. What is he doing? He turns it down. Could have been out in eight years. He turns it down.

His attorney is shocked. And when the press asks him, he just says, it was John's decision. It was all him. Like, I don't know. I didn't do that. Not me. Don't ruin my career over this shit. I would have said.

I'd like to try another case someday. I begged him to take this fucking deal. You have no idea. Now, in the first trial, Donald Spivey, who's a rest stop worker, IDs John as a shooter, Billy Joe. He IDs him. Also, his cousin Thad gives testimony. A couple of people from around the neighborhood give testimony that they heard

him bragging. Margaret Jagger testifies. She comes all the way from England, back to testify. Oh, she's got stones. She keeps coming back. I dig it. She says of the rest stop, quote, it seemed okay. There were a lot of people there with cars. They're like, in England, you don't get shot if there's a bunch of people around. But here, apparently, no big deal.

There is zero physical evidence. Nothing. Nothing. They don't have the guns. Not a bullet shell? Nothing. Nothing with his— Oh, there were revolvers.

Yeah, nothing. I think the one was a semi-auto, but there's nothing that ties him to it. No fingerprint. No fingerprint. Nothing. And there's no gun to match it anyway. No gun to match it. Just a bullet shell.

Yeah, it's just all circumstantial. So now November 17th, 1994 is jury decision day for the jury verdict day. They deliberate for six hours and then they report to the judge that they are hopelessly deadlocked. Later on, we find out the final count was 11 to 1 for guilty. 11 to 1. During deliberations, jurors were heard yelling and arguing mainly about the physical evidence and lack thereof.

Also argued about the ID from the rest stop worker, Donald Spivey. Okay. So that day, Judge F.E. Steinmeier declares a mistrial in the case. Doesn't tell him, go back and try again. He'd been there for less than a work day. Give it another shot, guys. The prosecutor, Assistant State DA Mike Schneider, who we talked about before, he declined comment because he was pissed.

Of course. Defense Attorney Mina Morgan said that Billy Joe was upset because, quote, he was hoping it would be over today. Well, sorry. Yeah, you're hoping he'd be sent away for life to prison today. Margaret Jagger was there. Also, Billy Joe's mom, Susie Mae Johnson, was there. And that sounds like a Florida name. You betcha.

Both of them declined comment, and Jagger was crying afterwards. Which, if you make a British shit cry, you have done some shit. You've done something. Because they don't cry for shit. No. And then they write amazing songs about you and win Grammys. Yes. Now, it is revealed after the proceeding that, because the jury's secret before, you don't cry for no and then they write amazing songs about you and win grammy yes now it is it is

revealed after the proceeding that because the jury's secret before you don't know who they are after this all lets out that one of the this is why small towns are rough for this show this is why we people say why do you make fun of the town this is why we make fun of small towns for this reason one of the jurors was a former classmate of Billy Joe in high school. How did that person get on the fucking jury? Oh, that's not the worst part. Another was a former teacher of his. What the fuck? A fucking teacher.

So they see him as a child that you tried to help at some point. It's there. You can't have that. No. Didn't they say, do you know this fucking guy? Have you ever seen that man in your life? Did you teach him geometry by any chance? You happened to cheat off him?

Did he cheat off you? Then you're out. You're fucking out. Unbelievable. That's so unfair. I can't even believe that happened. That's what I mean. This doesn't happen in San Francisco or somewhere.

In Chicago, they don't go, oh, yeah, my brother was on the jury. That shit doesn't happen. They took that jury of your own peers shit way too seriously. I would say. Apparently, it was the forewoman who would not bend to guilty because there was lack of physical evidence, she said, and she wasn't going to give in. So, whatever. Good for her. It's her choice.

She's the jury on the jury. Now, January 24th, 1995, now 16-year-old Andra Akins pleads guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder. So, that's not a great much of a deal. This is to avoid the death penalty. It's on the eve of his trial, too. The deal was struck, I'm sorry, it was struck an hour before jury selection was set to begin. So he was like, okay, never mind, sure, fuck it, I'll take the deal. Gary Colley's brother, Stephen, the victim's brother, said that he was happier with this deal

that Akins will get life rather than the death penalty. The life sentence is about 27 years is what it basically breaks down to. Stephen Colley, the brother, said, quote, I really didn't want the electric chair for him anyway. I would rather he just rot in jail forever. If he died now, it would be all over for him. He doesn't deserve that. So that makes sense.

I'd rather see him suffer. But 27 years and then he gets a chance at parole, right? Yeah. Well, there it's I think you've got to serve, what is it, two-thirds of your sentence. Okay. I'm going down there. It's a lot. 80% of your sentence in Florida is how they work it.

Now, Margaret Jagger was also in court for this plea. So she's basically moving to the panhandle for this shit. She keeps coming back. Reliving her fucking nightmare every time. And that's what she says, too. Every time, this is a nightmare for me. Akins is expected to now be a witness in the next Billy Joe Cromedy trial because that's part of his deal. He's got to testify.

So March 1st, 1995 is the pretrial for trial number two for Billy Joe. The judge approves a change of venue. Let's get out of this small town. Let's get out of here. Too much publicity with the first trial and everything. We don't want to get another one of his teachers in here. Yeah. So let's do that. They move it to Gainesville. everything. Yeah. You know, we don't want to get another one of his teachers in here. Yeah. So let's do that.

They move it to Gainesville. No. So Gainesville. That's not good. Yeah. So not to have our little farther away. Now, Donald Spivey, the rest stop worker who ID'd Billy Joe on the first one, he testifies that he saw Billy Joe there.

Andre Akins testified that this time as part of his deal, like I said, he says in his testimony, quote, Billy Joe. He says Billy Joe was to the driver's side and I was on the passenger side and we knocked on the window and told them to give it up. And then Duran drove the car behind the people's car and then they cranked it up and tried to drive off. And when they hit the car, both of us started shooting. So he tells the story. So it sounds like they panicked. He hit the car.

They didn't know what to do. They just started firing. So they didn't drive off. It sounds like like one guy fired. The other one's like, oh, fuck, and they both fired. They're idiot kids. That's why kids shouldn't be running around trying to rob people with guns. It's ridiculous. Also, too, Deron Speer testified that he was the getaway car driver, like Akins had said.

The defense's first witness that they call, Margaret Jagger. What? They call Margaret Jagger because she could not identify billy joe because she was sleeping was awoken by that shit things happen flashes a gun in the dark she never saw the kid she's awoken by a fucking car speeding in reverse she didn't never what are you doing asshole i'm trying to sleep yeah they get her on and they're like do you see the guy and she says no so they think of that as a win the only other witness was billy joe himself again he also testified in the first trial he gets up there he goes stand i was home sleeping that's all he says i was home sleeping i don't know i don't know i don't know i was home sleeping

i was home sleeping that's his whole thing he claims he was home sleeping uh he says he was home with his quote auntie as he puts it and uh he says it also to his 13 and 14 year old little sisters were there he said his bedtime was 10 or 10.30. I love how they're trying to make him sound like a child, which he is 16, so it's like whatever. But they're trying to make him sound younger. Like, oh, I was just there with my sisters and my auntie. My bedtime's at 10. But, you know, he said his sister's bedtime.

She made me a hot toddy. Yeah, you know how it goes. His sister's bedtimes were at 9, so they weren't awake later to see him there. He said his mom left around 8, and he was asleep when she got home. So she must have been out very late, she says. And he said he went to school the next day. So he's like, I don't know what anybody's talking about. I was just hanging out at home.

Mom was out. I hung out and went to bed. And what was that? End of story. I don't know what happened out there. Went to school the next day, and those people went and killed people, I guess. I don't know. What do I know?

I guess that's the story. I'm not a cop. You guys figure it out. Who knows what goes on. I hate him. It's crazy. So he claims he couldn't have shot anyone because he, quote, never owned a cop. You guys figure it out. Who knows what goes on. I hate him. It's crazy. So he claims he couldn't have shot anyone because he, quote, never owned a weapon. So how could he shoot anybody?

He claims that Akins and Spear are lying and conspiring to, quote, get him. But why? I mean, there's your hole in your story, sir. Give us a why. Other than to pin the extra thing. Other than to save face. They want a friend in prison? What the fuck? Other than prosecutors saving face to make, I have no other than to say they want a friend in prison. What the fuck?

Other than prosecutors saving face to make sure that these guys testify against it. They get all four that they arrested. The paper doesn't say they let one get away. That's the only thing I can think of that the lawyer is telling him to say this for. That's silly. Because this is what a lawyer would say. In closing, the defense said that there is zero physical evidence again that ties Billy Joe to the crime and that the witnesses were all tainted because they testified for selfish reasons, which whatever. I mean, yes, they do.

But that's how you get convictions. It's a really shitty thing to say about somebody that got shot, though. You know what I mean? Like she's only here testifying. No, not for the other ones. The co-defender. Okay. All right.

Co-conspirator. All right. Not Margaret Jagger. She's not here for. So she's here. Yeah. If I were her, I'd clear a table and knock him out. And you know she's down for it, too.

Oh, definitely. She's an angry Brit that's been crying. You bet your ass. So March 25th, 1995, the jury – it's jury – it's verdict day. Jury deliberates for seven hours, and they come to the judge and say, we're hopelessly deadlocked. God damn it. Again, count was 9-3 in favor of guilty this time. Judge F.E. Steinmeier again declared a mistrial.

Again, get these, say one more day. Get your asses back in there. A juror, Gloria Rozier, said, quote, I need more physical evidence, a hair, a fiber, something. Nobody put him there for me, which I could see that. If you're going to put a child in jail for life, you want to have something that's not just two criminal assholes saying that it was him. I get that. Fine. Judge orders Billy Joe to be held in custody.

I'm not going to let him go. State Attorney William Meggs said that he will retry the case. Defense Attorney Mina Morgan said, quote, there comes a time when enough hung juries raises a reasonable doubt. Well, by my count, you're down 20 to 4 in juries so far. You're down 11 to 1 and 9 to 3. You're not doing so great. No, you're down 20 to 4 in juries so far. You're down 11 to 1 and 9 to 3. You're not doing so great. You're down 20 to 4. It's past half time. You better get your shit together. You're just lucky in the

Constitution. You have to have all 12. Margaret Jagger got up her Britishness and has showed no emotion and declined comment. Now, 1995, the tourism industry is suffering like crazy. Suffered a 20% decline between 93 and 95. That's what we're talking about based on these tourism.

Wow. That's all it was out there. City can't replace. They're broke from these trials, too. They're not used to having long, drawn out, press murder trials. That end in hung juries. Yes. They cannot replace the 25-year-old fire truck that they need to replace because it doesn't work right anymore.

replaced the 25-year-old fire truck that they need to replace because it doesn't work right anymore. Also, too, they're desperately in need of two new ambulances because they don't have enough ambulances and they can't buy them. Jesus. Also, they cut the library budget by 20% because of the cost of the murder case and poor Doris the lunch lady, as we know of, is already a casualty. The city asked the state to reimburse the $750,000 in court costs for them and the state gave them about $300,000.

That's nice of them. So that's nice, but it isn't cutting shit. No. Now, Jefferson County Sheriff Ken Fortune, who we talked to before, said, quote, We wondered how this could happen in such a small county like this. For a while, we had so much media in town that people couldn't lead their lives. It really shook people up. Now we've had enough of international publicity.

We want to move on to our normal routines, get up, go to work, take care of our families. Well, no shit. County Clerk of Courts Eleanor Hawkins said, quote, we don't deserve to be known as the headquarters for crime. I think everyone is real anxious to get this over with. Let's just push this shit under the rug. They really want it. Now, third trial, September 1995. This one's going to be in Pensacola.

Three hours away they're going. 1995. This one's going to be in Pensacola. Three hours away they're going. This jury consists of seven white women, two white men, a black man, a black woman, and an Asian woman. They found one in the county out there in Pensacola. Defense lawyer Dwight Wells files a motion to

challenge the jury pool. They get a pool of 50 jurors to pick from. This jury pool only had five of 50 people that were black. That county, Escambia County, is 20 percent black. So there should have been 10 jurors to be representative of it. The judge rejects the motion based on the fact that they said that blacks were not systematically excluded. It was just kind of random how it worked out.

So she – whatever. That's dismissed there. Both Akins and Speer testify against Billy Joe again. They tell their roles in the crime. Same thing as the second one. Billy Joe testifies again saying he was home asleep. Rest stop worker Donald Spivey testifies again. Exact same trial basically.

They introduce though one thing. For the first time they introduce a police composite sketch made by Spivey at the time of the murder that resembles Billy Joe. At first they said, the defense was saying the first time he's ID'd, Billy Joe is here in court. So he doesn't know shit. It's later.

They tried to pull that. And they said, no, no, here's a sketch from before. I don't know why they didn't introduce that earlier. Yeah, you'd think that would be like their first fucking thing. You would imagine. Lost in a file. I don't know. So defense attorney Wells here says that the ID is flawed because Billy Joe's hair is now

close cropped and he was not wearing a hat like the attackers were wearing hats, which whatever. Shooter described by Spivey had dreads and a ball cap on, but at the time, Billy Joe had dreads. So what are you going to do? Jagger is called again. Can't ID Billy Joe again. I mean, they knew that.

That's why they keep calling her. After jury instructions, a juror falls ill and is dismissed. So they put an alternate in place. That juror was found to have talked to reporters. Oh, Jesus. So she's disqualified. Another alternate is put in place. Finally, September 16th, 1995 is verdict day.

Three hours of deliberation. Finally, he's convicted of second-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder and attempted armed robbery. He'll be sentenced in November 95. Kali's mother, Brenda Armitage, who the victim's mother said, quote, that sounds very British, too, Brenda Armitage. She said, I'm relieved it's all over. The last two years have been very hard. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah, that's an understatement.

Lawyer for the defense, Dwight Wells, says that they will seek a new trial based on that jury pool being messed up. Susie Mae Johnson, the mother of Billy Joe, had something a little different to say. She said, quote, it's horrible. It's horrible. This town ain't nothing but a damn redneck town, and Monticello is just the same. She's pissed. Your redneck town that you live in dismissed it twice, or a hung jury mistrialed it twice. You. A hung jury fucking mistrial. Yeah, you should be thankful it was rednecks over there. You should dig them. So Mike Schneider, again, the state's attorney, said the witnesses were better this time. That was his – he said that they appeared more comfortable in a smaller courtroom, too.

I guess the other ones were big, giant courtrooms, and this was a smaller size, and they said it made them more comfortable. A little more intimate. Yes. Low ceilings. Exactly. It's like a comedy club. A little 100-seater. I like that.

A little small stage. A little nice thing there. You feel backed up against the wall. So early 1996, Duran Spear is let out of prison after two years. Wow. Two years Spear gets out with that deal. December 19, 1999, two men enter a Winn-Dixie Mart, which is like a convenience store, in Panama City, Florida. Oh, God.

At 4 a.m. while employees are mopping and waxing the floor. That's the worst time to be there. Oh, yeah. They rob the store at gunpoint. One man hits an elderly employee in the head with his gun. Asshole. Yes. Like he was going to stop you from robbing the Winn-Dixie like he cares.

They take the employees into the back room. Police say they got about $150 in postage stamps, which they were 33 cents a piece back then, so they got about 450 stamps out of the deal. End quote. Yeah. A substantial amount of currency. Two dudes selling stamps on the street. Can you imagine?

Hey, man, I got some postage. I'll give it to you for 30. Hangs out out front of the post office. You mailing something? You mailing shit? Rolls. I got this. So January.

I got the fucking freedom stamp. It's good every time. So through a Crimestopper tip, which is the tip line for this sort of thing, on January 24, 2000, Cedric Green and Duran Spears are charged with the robbery on December 17th. We remember them, the half brothers who got out with whatever, got out with a light sentence. Green is fully cooperating with police, the younger one. Spears is also charged with aggravated battery and a felon possessing a firearm because he was the one who hit the old man with a gun.

Police believe that they are responsible for at least two to three other robberies in the area, including one on December 23rd of another Winn-Dixie where two men, same thing, hood scheme ass, robbed at gunpoint. Detective Sergeant Dan Bates said, quote, the similarities, the way they were done, there's no doubt in my mind they've done two or three others down here. Bastards. Proving it and charging them is something else. Yeah.

So they end up proving about three, four of the robberies. Oh. And Green is sent to prison for 15 years. Thank God. The younger one. And Speer is given a life sentence. Wow. He keeps robbing people.

Yeah. He likes to have guns. That's got to sting a little bit, though. Absolutely. January 2004 is Billy Joe's appeal ruling, because he appealed, obviously. He claims that his lawyer was ineffective in all three trials. No good. He said the attorney did not call the sleeping aunt to the stand that could have been his

alibi. Yeah. The lawyer, Dwight Wells, said, quote, I'm not sure I ever used the word alibi with Mr. Cremity the whole time of my representation. He said that never once did anyone in the family tell him that the aunt could have been an alibi. This was never mentioned until now, 10 years later. Billy Joe wants a new trial. Judge, during this appeal, that's what he's going for based on this.

Judge Ralph, quote, Bubba Smith. Judge Bubba took only, why do we make fun of these towns? He pops a pap when he makes a ruling. Let me tell you something. That's his gavel. It took only minutes to rule that the attorney Wells had done his job properly and denied his appeal for a new trial. Fuck off.

Fuck off. Bye-bye. 2013, Cedric Green is released from prison. What in the fuck? Look out, Florida. This young man is out there. Yeah. He's a fun one. Lock up your Winn-Dixies. Yeah, everybody. What in the fuck? Look out, Florida. This young man is out there. He's a fun one.

Lock up your Winn-Dixies. Yeah, everybody. Be on the alert. November 2012, U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life for non-homicide crimes. This affects Audra Akins. This brings him up for a resentencing hearing because he

was sentenced to 27 plus, which is life. His sentence is overturned by this ruling, obviously, from the U.S. Supreme Court. He has a resentencing hearing. They talk about it's in September of 2013. They talk about his disciplinary problems in jail. His lawyer said, well, he had no hope. He was here for life.

So when someone has hope, it's different. He's got nothing to lose. He's going to be a dick. He said since the ruling, he's gotten his high school diploma. He's taken commercial painting courses and become religious. Jesus help us. So before the murder, he also had cases before the murder of grand theft, criminal mischief, and sexual battery by 14. Wow.

So he was on the fucking fest. Sexual battery too? Sexual battery at 14. Wow. Oh, boy. So during the resentencing, Jagger is back again for this. She keeps coming. This is 20 years later. I love her to death. It's almost to the day the resentencing, Jagger is back again for this. She keeps coming. This is 20 years later. I love her to death.

It's almost to the day 20 years later, by the way. She said, quote, my life sentence, well, my sentence will never come to an end, which makes sense. Akins testified telling Jagger that he wasn't the kid he was in 1993 and that he hopes one day she can forgive him, which is sort of at least a manly thing to do a little bit. Akins said, quote, I'm a Christian. I really want to get out and help other youth. Show them there's a better way than crime. You've never had a better way than crime.

You just negated your whole thing. Ridiculous. Absolutely. You just begged for forgiveness from your victim, and then you just told her, by the way, I'm religious. I'm real religious. And now I'm about to bullshit the hell out of you. And his mother, Beatrice Brooks, said, quote, I understand what he did was wrong, but if

God can forgive him, why can't man? I don't know. Gee, I wonder. Now, September 14th, same thing here. Jagger, like I said, is there. The judge gives Akins 40 years in prison. Wow. He gets 40 years instead of life.

With time served and good behavior, he will most likely be out in 2024. That's too close. That's not too far away. That's way too close. Jagger tells reporters that she hopes Akins can stay out of trouble and have another kind of life when he gets out. So she's actually being nice and trying to like, hey, everybody works out. There's no life after that, though.

No. It's ridiculous. It's so hard to get started again after you served that kind of life. Unreal. That kind of time in fucking prison. Unreal. So everybody is sentenced. Now, for two years after the shooting,

from 93 to 95, the state put armed guards at all the rest stops along the I-10. Wow. This ran out in 95 when the publicity died down and they were like, our budget sucks,

so let's shit can those guys. Get the fuck out of here. It also introduced stronger penalties for juveniles, this whole thing. There was a whole thing. So the 90s were like the put all the teenagers in prison forever generation. Yeah. Decade.

It really was. I was a teenager. We're lucky to be free. We're lucky to be free. We could have been in jail for anything. And they pulled all the armed guards. I hope they got their fire trucks and ambulances. Let's hope so.

Good God. So that is that is the case of poor Gary Colley and the Monticello, Florida. Wow. If you like What a town. What a town. If you like what you hear here, if you like that story, please review us on iTunes. Give us five stars. Tell us your following instructions, whatever you want to do.

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Download the Amazon Music app today. Or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy.

The stories we cover are well-researched. He claimed and confessed to officially killing up to 28 people. With a touch of humor. I'd just like to go ahead and say that if there's no band called Malevolent Deity, that is pretty great. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. This mother****er lied. Like a liar. Like a liar. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal,

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