The Case of a Lifetime

country that converged into Atlanta to celebrate his return. I told him about a hustler named Gordon Williams, a k a. Chicken Man, who was throwing the biggest party of his life. But when his guests walked inside, they were greeted by seven mask gunmen. Was sawed off shotguns who escorted them down to the basement, stripped them out of their clothes, and robbed them of a million dollars in cash and jewelry. When I was done, Johnny looked at me with a

shocked expression on his face. Slowly, he turned to the stranger sitting at the barn is left and said, you've got to hear this story. Then he looked back at me and demanded, tell it again, Jeff Okay, Johnny here it is. Why did the press keep following this story? Mamma Ali, Cassius Clay, there's not one number two. It was a big robber. You're ready to worry Blackmark. Yeah, I said they had robbed the blackmark. This fight represented

the brace Muhammad Ali. All the hotels were so loud, guys had their rolls royces flown to a Maxi beautiful people. Little bit star Ali was in exile in the boxing community. He was stripped of his heavyweight title and the big fight commissions. No one would touch him. They wasn't diving and they were serious dropped because they hadn't known when they were robbing. Then they were robbed. So when did the investigation end? You wanted from my Heart radio and

doghouse Pictures. This is fight Night. I'm Jeff Keithing. Ever since I was a kid, I've had a passion for true crime. It all started forty years ago with my dad in a hotel room in New York City. He showed me a very r rated film, The French Connection Behind My Mom's Back. This nine seventies true crime thriller star Gene Hackman as the fearless detective pop by Doyle and Fernando Ray as the cunning French heroine smuggler known

as Frog One. It was a classic depiction of cop versus criminal, cat versus mouse, but also showed the incredibly thin line between police and the criminals they chase. Needless to say, I was hooked. Fast forward twenty years later, my dad told me a true prime story that had all the same things I loved about that movie. This one was based in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. Another classic case of cop versus criminal, but this time the cat protects the mouse. Good morning, Good morning, sir. How

are you doing. I think I'm okay. This is my dad, Tom Keating. He was in Atlanta the night of the fight. In fact, he was at the hotel where Muhammad Ali was staying, and I called him to ask him a few questions about what it was like, and I would

have been out of my element. And it was just an overwhelming array of glitter and clothing and colors and festivities and pomp and circumstance, which later was called the you know, the most unusual collection of black power and black money, uh and sports and in history coming together in a city, in our city, in the city that I've been in since, so it would have been just over years later. When I was an aspiring screenwriter in my early thirties, my dad told me this incredible story

for the very first time. He remembered the headline from the morning he left on his honeymoon with my mom, so I dragged him down to the Decatur Library to find out more. After hours searching through microfilm, we finally got it. This is from the Atlanta Journal Evening edition, October ninety. It was written by Orville Gaines and Larry Woods. The headline reads like this, after fight partygoers robbed of

a hundred thousand in cash jewelry. My dad grinned when he saw my reaction, and I said to him, this is going to be my next film. This set me on a path that led to the podcast you're listening to right now. The interviews in this show spent is to four decades and were sourced from all kinds of things like VHS tapes, microcossette camp orders, phone calls, anything

I could get my hands on. Some of these tapes were never meant to be heard by anyone but me, so bear with me because some of the recordings are higher quality than others. But now many of the people involved in this story are no longer alive, and I need you to hear from them, the ones who lived it, in their own words, so you can truly believe what happened.

After researching several more articles from newspapers around the country, I was able to zero in on one of the top cops on the case, J D. Hudson, and with the help that the Public Affairs Division of the Atlanta Police Department, I tracked him down and got an interview. On July one, two thousand two, I parked my STUV on a street in southwest Atlanta and walked to the front of J. D. Hudson's house. I knocked lightly on

the door and waited. When he finally came out, j D immediately reminded me of the character Shaft played by Richard Rowntree in the nineteen seventies crime films Shit, Chef's his name, Chef's his game. He blocked the entrance while puffing on a white out miniature cigar and blew a big smoke ring that engulfed my head. He said, I don't have to talk to you. I don't have to talk to anybody, now get inside. While I was grateful to escape the heat, j D was not particularly welcoming.

He didn't say a word as he led me back to his living room and plopped down into his worn recliner. Turned his attention back to the Williams sisters playing at Wimbledon on TV. J D made it clear he would not be turning off the game, though we did lower the volume and notch is kind of a throwaway courtesy. I pressed the record button and I asked my first quest, gen what happened the night of the robbery? All right, take me back to this party, because I'm so confused

about the point I think. Let me try to get that you thankless birthday. J D told me about a hustler named Fireball who asked his friend Chicken Man, toast a big party in Atlanta after the Ali Corey fight. Who's who of hustlers and gangsters from New York, Philly, Miami and other big cities around the country were all invited. Chicken Man wanted this to be like New Year's Eve, the Super Bowl and Marty Grawl all rolled into one

big party and matter after the frightenes. Okay, when you talk about a hustles party, rich very rich people, heaven, the food you can eat right out of you can drink Okay, Okay, that the big chatter they depend the girls man. Okay, movie kind of stuff and expects him and how about a day you know? Right? J D had risen through the ranks of the Atlanta Police Department to become the first black man in charge of internal affairs.

He also knew the world of these hustlers, and he personally knew several of the people directly involved in the party and the robbery. In fact, he grew up with some of them in a predominantly black neighborhood in Atlanta known as Buttermilk Bottom. I grew at an Atlanta the neighborhood known as the Whole foot Water but that was baptized at age twelve and the Butt Street Baptist Stretch from Butler Street. I looked at the Salmon School. There was some check Jackson and d l being on a Wednesday.

J D knew the world of hustlers and low level criminals from an early age, but he was also front and center in the earliest days of the civil rights movement. Also that I had contact with Andy. I'm starting to cooking and King and I were friends. And yeah, most people in the movement Lenne King then Brown as we grew up together, griping in my MC together. The Butler Street y m c A was a very important institution located uh in the Sweet Arban district of the Old

Fourth Ward. This is Dr Maurice Hobson, Atlanta historian, scholar and author of the award winning book The Legend of the Black Mecca, Politics and Class and the Making of Modern Atlanta. Though it served, as you know, a venue for the young Man's Christian Association, it also served as the venue for the Hungry Club, which was the black

political sphere in Atlanta. So any political figure that was interested in courting the black vote had to come to the Butler Street y m c A. As with most places in the United States, African Americans were designated it two low lying areas that oftentimes with flood it was undesirable land because standing water or stagnant water that made it more accessible for yellow fever malaria across the American South. If you lived in that area, that was called the bottom.

So every black community across the American South, there's always the bottoms, and it usually floods. That particular area becomes very much a haven. As to how Black America really begins to congregate, j D never intended to be a cop, but when he decided to take the officers exam, he aced it. He was destined for a life enforcing the law as one of Atlanta's first black policeman. And I sat down and picks in and made the highes bo

that side. It came up faces. I was one in the chief praade with Herbert Jenkins, and he sware me in as a Niga Polies, sware me in as a Nigatholies. J D dealt with the same struggles that many black men and women faced in Atlanta during the Civil Rights movement, and the chief of Police, Herberty Jenkins, who swore j D n using a racial slur, would develop into a progressive leader defending the black citizens in the city. You

noticed I I didn't notice it. I just thought about a respect because I'm used later when he evolved and founded being one of the most liberal police chiefs in the country. There's no accident that the headquarters of all the civil rights movements located in the Atlantic because the protection the lad Abo Atlanta said the government through her Virginia's he would not allow whites to attack rights in Amata, and he demanded were not have arresting. Atlanta was not

gonna be torn about our rights. Now. We were restrictive. We could not arrest right people. We could not arrest white people in Atlanta. When the first black cops were commissioned by the City of Atlanta, it was seen as purely ceremonial and symbolic. However, the power bestowed upon them as police officers had little to no effect. They had no real policing powers. They could not arrest white people.

They were not even allowed to use the locker rooms at the Atlanta Police station, and so they had to get dressed at the Butler Street Y m c A. And we worked uh all of the Avenue Van City far as the avenue whatever. That was gradually expanded, but we started it was very restrictive. Things eight hours. We were not allowed to drive through his uniform through the white community. We were not allowed to well our uniforms

home made defense on white prison. It was fascinating. You know, you're a guy who had unprecedented authority in the back community, no black man and whield the authority and in latter in the city. As a matter of fact, that a black policeman did, people did what you told him to do. People ask you for information, that you were the webserviction there. People smiled and waved at you. As a matter of fact, people who followed us around us that we want as

every one on. Black people were very proud about. Yes they were. Black communities of Atlanta were extremely proud of these black police officers. And one of the things that was characteristic of these police officers is that many of them were from the community in which they were police, and so there was a trust between black communities and the black police officers. And the rules and laws changed,

you still had hostility, had resentment. Ah ask a couple of guys who didn't want to work from me, who were white. Once they wake from me, they want to leave men. I was hin the top of the hill, I was hot, stunned, I was police celebrity. That was the vie White brothers on the police department. He's a big to write with me. So it makes some cases. J D had been dealing with inequality and racial tension

on the Atlanta police force for years. In fact, early on he wasn't allowed to arrest white people, but he would eventually be faced with an even more complicated dilemma having to arrest black people who were out fighting for his rights as a black man. This tension came to a head at a place called Lebs Diner. Here's Dr Hobson so. Lebs Diner was a New York delicatessen that was located across from what is now the rialto Unlucky

and Forsyth in the early nineties sixties. It was a whites only restaurant with the students of the Atlanta Student movement. It was one of the restaurants where black students would come and promote non violent direct action. And so this was one of the lunch counters that they would go to and to be seated in a respectful manner, and usually the police would show up, had to arrest people. Uh done. It's a rights movement who were fighting for my freedom, half of my right to vote, my right

to be a citizen at the resting. You know, so,

I guess I should be a very bitter man. Some of the challenges of a black police officer was how to earned the respect of their constituency, but at the same time, how to enforce the laws which sometimes are created to marginalize this franchise, criminalized and demonized the same communities, and which the from Oftentimes, black police officers may have been harder on black communities then white police officers, because what the black police officers were trying to do was

trying to show the white establishment that they were not like some of these criminals in the black community. Being one of the first black police officers in the country was very empowering for j D. But it also presented a constant dream of moral dilemmas. As he rose through the ranks of the Atlanta p D, his job became increasingly complicated, a delicate balancing act between his responsibilities and

limitations as a black cop. By seventy j D. Hudson had been promoted to the head of internal affairs for the Atlanta Police Department, having risen through the ranks more slowly, he says, because he was never one to suck up to his superiors. It was the same year that j D was given an incredible assignment to guard Muhammad Ali, a k A. Cassius Clay. In the days leading up to his triumphant return to boxing, I had the responsibility of Goden Cassius Clay, because that in about five thousand

threats against the Slight. So I had been with him all day, and I cared him to the fight and led him into the range. Matter of fact, I got beat up. See his head is on around me and I was walking in front of it. God was practically only hid and so I was a debate that stayed with him for twenty whiles a day, seven days a week. The time he got into and he left, I ran into all kinds of people rich and the famous and

all that stuff. But j D had no idea about the million dollar heist which was brewing behind the scenes of Ali's comeback fight, or that less than twenty four hours later the chief of police would assign him the case of his life. J D's assignment made perfect sense. He was the best man for the job and one of the only men on the force who was able to navigate the world of both cops and criminals, and

he understood the relationship between the two. Were there any police than they were in love to, you know, illegal activities back in the seventies of that time, policeman involved, and every hustle and every city in this country. Okay, money is exchanging hands, always had, always as well, okay, and the press is trying to clean us up, right, And I'm being a trader to the policeman because they don't like me, because this ain't supposed to say it.

Everybody loves the cooking cops get red boded those and everybody encourages the proper to be cooking. They won't admitted. Oh hell, I don't care. Two manion policemen m two many hustles paroh right. See, that's a world if you don't know about it. That's what I'm trying to reach as the world girl't know about. Chief of Police Herberty Jenkins needed j D for two reasons, to navigate racial tensions, and because he was an honest cop. But j D

said that jenkins confidence in him was isolated. He felt that others on the force, the press, and even the FBI seemed to judge him based on racial stereotypes, which had been advanced by pop culture for decades. So yeah, I understand black books to the second, and you state them so step and fetch it was more or less kind of a black face caricature. When we begin to talk about caricatures, particularly black caricatures, what we're talking about

our aspects of minstrel shows. This is not for a candidate. This happens to be a cod And so there's a longstanding history in the United States dating back to the eighteen twenties that deals with minstrel shows and what minstrel shows are where these exaggerated characters of who black people were supposed to be that were often performed by white ethnics. And so they took a fictitious narrative of who black people were as dumb and ignorant and promiscuous and and

you know, self loathing and slower the uptake. They took that to be real. And so when we think about the embodiment of you know, and ain't Jemima Uncle ben uh step and fetch it, the notion was to promote a white supremacy that showed that the most unintelligent white person was smarter than the smartest black person. This was a real conversation around white supremacy. You don't know, that's for nothing. They're dumb as white man it's black man. Okay.

At the end of Southern you'll tell you that. Okay, right now, I had to take off from guys who couldn't chat max usely, right, my boss. Right, I'm a lawyer. I think about it. I knew what happened, I knew about the party, I knew about the people. I understood the culture of the night in question of the culture

the people there. So now JD is heading up the investigation into the heist that stole the spotlight and the headlines from Muhammad Ali's epic comeback fight, and in those headlines you start to see a very interesting narrative emerge. Fight fans are invited by engraved invitation two hundred thousand dollar hold up. Police say, hold up conceived in New York lottery figure and girlfriends saw it in two hundred thousand dollar fight. Party plucked by robbers to Chicken Man,

says chicken Man. Who was this Chicken Man? I had to find out, So I kept digging into more and more headlines and saw this name Chicken Man pop up over and over again as the prime suspect who organized the heist. I asked j D about it, and he said that his boss, the FBI, and other policemen were pushing this hustler. Street named Chicken Man as the prime suspect, but j D wasn't so sure. Chief Chaplains, who at that time was super detective, believe ah. He said that

he had the most relivable meation in the world. Uh, that was Chicken Man in his group. That he set the whole thing up. That was just a buncha boo. I couldn't tell my boss that, but I told the chief that. So the Chief said, it's your decision, you make it, and I did. Chicken Man had been a person of interest to the Atlanta p D for years for crimes ranging from bootlegging and drugs to running illegal lotteries.

J d's boss, Chief of Detectives, Charles Chaffin, believed Chicken Man had organized the after hours party so he had all the side information he needed to also organize the heist. But j D didn't believe the heightst originated in Atlanta at all. In fact, he thought Chicken Man had nothing to do with it. J D would turn out to be onto something with that New York connection, and we'll explore that in more depths throughout the story. But for now.

What's important to remember is that Chicken man, whose real name was Gordon Williams, was already a big time hustler making a lot of money in Atlanta. J D believed it just didn't make sense for him to put all of that on the line by robbing his own party, let alone the types of high level gangsters that could have and would have had him killed. J D had

a moral code. While he was absolutely toughest nails as a cop and wanting to put away criminals, he would never even consider penning a crime on someone that didn't do it, and he resented those above and around him who would have done just that. I always called myself a cold, better professional. Now I didn't care who you are. I love the hated You had nothing to do. Mean folks in the law. You know my best friend, and I caught your body. No, I locked you up. You

might waste any man person. I hate it with all kinds of passion. If you didn't do anything wrong, I wasn't gonna bother you, and it bothered me the policeman when in fact trying to get this man killed. I knew they were gonna kill it, and the police were going to be responsible because they kept on bless his name out of the police say an FBI. They thought

he had robbed a black mafia. The figures black hustlers in this country, some of the toughest men in this country, some of the dead list men in this country, Guys who would not hesitate to blow your head off because you stepped on that shoe. They would have killed it.

And according to the New York Times, that's exactly what they did Wednesday, October, informed sources associate created with the police department suggested today that the police believe Williams planned the robbery to raise funds to repay a large debt. The sources also said that the Atlanta police now believe Williams is dead as the result of a contract released on him Gangland Terminology for an arrangement of his murder, and over the next six months, more bodies would be

discovered from Atlanta to New York. As I read this article on microfilm at the Decatur Library, my mind was racing my main source for this story. The lead investigator into the heist, Detective J. D. Hudson, didn't believe Chicken Man had anything to do with the robbery, but now I find out he's dead. So if Chicken Man didn't do it, who did? And who killed Chicken Man fighting?

And it's a joint production from My Heart Radio, Will Packer Media and Doghouse Pictures in association with Psychopia Pictures. Produced and hosted by Jeff Keating. Executive producers are Will Packer, James Lopez, Kenny Burns, Dan Bush, Lars Jacobson, and Noel Brown. Supervising producer is Taylor Shicoyne. Story editors are Noel Brown and Dan Bush. Written by Jeff Keating and Jim Roberts. Edited by Matt Owen. Mixing and sound designed by Jeremiah

Kolonnie Prescott. Music written and performed by The Diamond Street Players. Additional music by Ben Lovett. Audio archives courtesy of WSB News Film and Videotape Collection, Brown Media Archives, University of Georgia Libraries. Special thanks to Dr Maurice Hobson and David Davis