Where The F*ck Are My Keys?!

men and the food and get robbed. They made threats. I guess our family. They were gonna kill me, my little sister. They were gonna kill my mom. Their attitude of that power world, it's somewhere. One day they were say, they said, the man guys go to back from my Heart radio and doghouse pictures. This is fight night. I'm Jeff Keating. Chicken Man's world was turned upside down. The party that was supposed to set him up for good

was over, and now he was living a nightmare. He knew that even if he survived the masked gunmen who forced him to undress and lie on the basement floor, that the gangsters who entrusted him to host this party, now have him on their minds. As the crowds continue to swell, the scene became too much for the robbers to handle. Here I am with James Martin, the owner

of the house where the robbery went down. So James Gordon is now downstairs with everybody else, and the crowds are starting to increase in size as they are coming to the front door. And what happens is a large group James comes up to the house. They obviously see the curtains drawn, they hear the music, but because there's so many of them now, one of the men or women in the back of the group sees when the door opens a gun and yells it's a robbery or he's got a gun. Well, I would think that the

neighbors would have reported it. We've got a cement walk away with grass on both sides leading up to the house. We've got a iron fence that is about two to three ft high with a big drop off towards the driveway, which means that you can't really jump or go to the right of the house if you're trying to escape. And they run next door to the left here and from what I heard. They started banging on the door loudly and eventually get somebody inside to call the police.

We've got the people down there on Handy Drive with the walkie talkies. Because of the rise of the street. I don't think that they can see people in this yard right here. They can't see them rushing next door to call the police. Here's Chicken Man and j D discussing what happened when the party goers approaching the house saw the masked gunmen at the front door. People, but why the water run next door and one around across the stre your mother or two whatever these there was

a lot of They caught it off. They said, this is it now. You went there already know what they were saying on the on the on the walk and talk. Yeah, I forgot that they're about to walk our talk is and the guys and listen, we gotta get we got we gotta get out of here. And nobody got hood and nobody want to get killed. And the man on the outside. I hear the man and I said, yeah, but come on out, come on out, come on out there. Okay. So they're making everybody stay down and they're gathering the

acns whatever. And if the situation wasn't bad enough, they got even worse when the robbers decided to take hostages. Here's Chicken Man quoting what the robbers said to the victims lying on the basement floor to stay where you are. We're going out of here. We're gonna take two or three the women with us and we'll let them go. We don't want to hurt nobody. Just drive a talk. We're not gonna bother them or nothing. We're gonna protects them.

And uh, that's the way they split. One of them was a girlfriend of mine who lived in Dials cant Baba. Here I am with James trying to figure out how the robbers made their escape with the hostages. That's where some of the robbers took off. Some of the robbers took off maybe the front, you know, James, this is

what I really don't know. And that's the reason why they would have to have Barbara with them, because she'd had the calf the keys of the back door in order to get out, unless they made her already unlock it earlier in the evening, which I'm which I'm thinking they do that they know that they've got to get

access to that back door. The reason I'm thinking that they took Barbara with them was beat to the unlocked the back door, So they probably took her down the steps and you know, she unlocked the door and they just took her whipon. My thought is because they had the getaway driver about four blocks down that they walk. You talk to him saying, hey, this thing is over,

we gotta get out of here. They zoom up here, maybe circle around in the cul de sac or whatever, They jump in the car and then go from there. I described to James the characters who were signed to greet the party goers at the front door, specifically the ruthless leader and main muscle in charge of the robbery crew, fast Eddie Parker. Fast Eddie Parker would have been one of the gunmen at the front door, holding a three fifty seven with a silencer. The other gunmen would have

been McKinley Rogers holding a sawed off shotguns. These guys grew up in Brunswick, Georgia, and ended up in New York as hustlers working together. Fast Eddie became the enforcer for Richard Wheeler, a k A. Cadillac Ritchie, one of Cadillac. Ritchie's girlfriend's Jackie, described fast Eddie as a terrible man. He was about thirty six years old. He wore a short brimmed hat, and he always carried around a black bag.

When George Plimpton, who wrote Shadow Box, asked Jackie if she ever looked in that black bag, she said, God, no, God, no, oh Lord, there could have been a head in that bag. So these are like real gangsters that I've seen the movies. Now that doesn't even sound real. That actually happened. These were tough men with serious violent acts in their pasts. They had spent years doing stick up robberies in New York and now they were in the middle of the

biggest heist of their lives. Here's j D with Chicken Man, guessing what the robbers did when the party became overcrowded and too much to handle. Then they started leave. They left. Now you may know more about the night they left. What what? What? We'll go ahead, they left. I'm thinking that when they left the delays people who left the party. Rober left must have been Bucky Brown and that gal

who's taking a ship off women. Okay, here I am with James as we retraced the steps of j D's conjecture. Bookie Brown and Lillian Dabney were downstairs making their escape through the basement door. It's important to understand, James. We know that Frank Morten probably had a bodyguard waiting in a car on Old No and could have seen anybody coming out this back or and going through the backyard

to that street. So we're walking into the back yard at the house now and going to retrace the steps of some of the robbers as they're doing their getaway. So it was all of this was open anyway. There was no offense on this back end, so they were definitely able to go through the backyard to get to the to the back street of oh No in order to get away. I'm assuming, James, that's a very good assumption. You've got a clear shot of Old No. How far

do you think that is? Maybe thirty forty yards to the house and then another thirty forty yards, So I mean we're talking about one football field maybe from the back of the house to Old No. Where there would have been another card somehow. As the robbers leaving with this third woman, he sees that there is a getaway car and he drops the girl and the gun and the satchel. He tells the woman, Hey, baby, I gotta get out of here. I gotta drop you now and

grab some leather, something to that effect. But what's important to understand is that he basically has to leave her and the satchel and the shotgun at the scene of the robbery, and that's eventually what leads the police to their first clue. The robbers had made their escape and taken two hostages with them, Barbara Smith and another lady

from New York. Chicken Man and all the other hustlers and gangsters were half naked and trying to figure out what the hell just happened, and they were about to do the police, who were going to start asking them a bunch of questions. Here's Jad and Chicken Man explaining to me why none of the victims wanted to report the robbery. They were all hustless and everybody's waiting to hear about him day behind. The rest would have gone crazy. They put them all intoil, the local deals put him

into him. Everybody wanted them. They knew what they were doing. They robbed it because they know we if if that don't happen. The people don't call the police because the robber and they come in and robber, everybody leaves and none of us don't call the police. It was such a night matter me because the boys thing could have happened has already has happened. The worst thing that could

have happened has already happened. That's what Chicken Man told me when I interviewed him in two thousand and four. Are now, if you're Chicken Man, right now, your head is spinning. You're thinking, what am I gonna do? What's gonna happen to me? What's gonna happen to my family? What the hell just happened? And what are Frank Moten and all these hustlers thinking? Just went down? Because if I'm Chicken Man, I'm thinking that they're thinking that I

did it. Here's Chicken Man describing the scene in the basement. Once the robbers were gone. See what did it took everybody pocketbook and stretched shredded it. Like you know, you look through all the compartments. So everybody driving lies here was all in the middle flow among all the other cards, and then all this thing and I mean it is

through the long patent. Well, that's when everybody got a chance to see who was really there, because otherwise when you when you came in, they put their face down to the floor, so you didn't know. Oh, you know, some more people on the other side of you. You know, I don't know who they were. They mean the girls. Now they had about eight chair a little make sure the bob we had. They had the girls sitting up on the bar, all the girls, just to fill up

the school. Yeah, it's good, but everybody else was on the floor. That's when I realized that some of the people who were there where I know him from different places New York or were having because they did the invitement. I didn't know everybody. At some point after the robbers left, I'm guessing chicken In and Frank Molten must have exchanged words. This is a quote from The Black Godfather in George Plimpton's book shadow Box. We couldn't hear the radios no more.

People slowly got up and looked around. Then they tried to find their clothing. It lay there in a tall pile like a rummed sale, and people were calling out, I got so and so's credit cards, but I don't remember much laughing. I recall the Chicken Man was wearing a pair of long underwear, and someone came up and said that if he was wearing long underwear, he must have known he was going to spend the night lying on the cellar floor. He was prepared and man that

meant he was implicated. Chicken Man was looking guilty. The newspapers would report the claim that Chicken Man was wearing long John's. It could be the second most damning evidence that Chicken Man was involved in this caper. The first was that he owned the house where the party took place. Here's Chicken Man and j D reflecting on the mistake the robbers had made. The attitude at that time where they worth about the robbers. They worried about the doing.

The embarrassment they did have nothing else made them do mad. Their money. Didn't mean about that money, boy making the warm un addressed boy, I didn't give about the money. They didn't give a damn, but didn't get they said the money. The robbers fled the party house on Handy Drive with over a million dollars in cash and jewelry and took three hostages with them. Dozens and dozens of

people had been robbed and they were in shock. But as they began putting their clothes back on and rummaging through the pile of belongings on the floor, they realized they had no way to leave. Their car keys were gone. Here's the conversation between Chicken Men and j D describing when the cops first arrived on the scene. So when the police calm, I'm days. They took cockys mad from Acne come out there and stayed out there half of day making keys. So they all the cockies. But when

the police coming, they didn't know nobody. Brother nicks on me so checking what you're doing here? This is your house now When when I look up, I see you to bird because the people trying to find the driver lines and the women drawings over here. So when the police come, so they just asking no questions. You know you said the robber went that way, ain't there with an about the net And I got to get my ass out of there. Brother, this none of go kiss

the robber. If you find it, then come back with no. I don't know what. So when the man run into me, you take a man, and so he started asking me questions. So I said, listen man the robber that happened that people got the money. People come there and stuff and stuck all of us up. So I'm I'm telling what the New Yorkice telling. Don't ask me nothing. The robber went that way. Kiss the robber my understanding. I think we're go way and covering the frank. I found out

that the people were from everywhere. I was always sure of that. But after they back to the fair cover then they began to leave anybody's As the hustlers and gangsters tried to find transportation to leave Chicken Man's house, he was still in shock and worried sick about Barbara and the other lady taking hostage. I took him up there no side and bank here and the boba said.

The guy said, if I uh said, baby shows nice and everybody at the time, I just kill you on win me and then uh and give him well are you gonna get back? And then him twenty hours or something. The kids a cab to come back through the house. They let them go, Let them go. It's unbelievable, well that Barbara and her friend would be able to find a cab at around three in the morning on a

dark deserted street. Some reports say they picked up a ride from some late night partiers still celebrating Ali's victory. In any case, Barbara and her friend made their way back to the house on Handy Drive while Chicken in watched the gangsters who were robbed gathered their clothes and leave. Someone were just trying to get to a bus stop or whatever they want to get back to the hotel with all of us was checked in and somebody's hotel. None of them lived, so and we called cabin and

cav came, and cavs came. The attitude at that time world, they didn't they work about the robber. They didn't know the robber to mistake. It's somewhere one day they were paid. You know a guy, the biggest hustler in New York, the biggest hustler now the biggest in Chicago. Have none dressed the flo and get robbed. I mean the restaurant life. He's been ratified. Who who who did that? And he's

gonna kill it. That's what we told me. Everything. It was these guys going to back after the robbers left and before Leach came to the house with your hotel because I was I was bumped. I was out of the Next morning, while Chicken Men was at a hotel sleeping off the horrors of the night before, one of the hustlers who got robbed was in front of his house being interviewed by WSB and this feels long goo to me, and the show said stick your hands up.

I said, man, stop jabbing and hit him. He said, I'm not jabbing better, and he pushed me around to come. When he pushed me around the corner, and he's told me this was to shut down to my head, and I said, I'm not There's not no stage, Joe. I'm not jabbing. I'm for real. And when he said that, I was really to push him in a no because I just had It's all the fact. And by that time two or three more filers came out. Was shutting

and as I said, he's not jabbing. When Chicken Men finally gets up and leaves the hotel, he stops off and gets a newspaper. He was surprised to see his face on the cover. This is the same article my father showed me at the Decatur Library almost twenty years ago. And when I came out to the hotel and next morning, my pictures on the front page of the paper talking about the dribber and and they put a cash mount on it, on the robbery. So I called his lawyer.

But it made news. Why newspaper all over the time. See my picture on the paper, and if people robbed us, and we're robbing you know. And but I knew what that meant. When it is like I had robbed the people, it's like I had set it up. Here is a piece from the Atlanta Journal on October nine, which describes

the estimated take from the robbery. According to Lieutenant Bird, one of the first detectives that showed up at the heist, one of the gunmen threatened the guests with this warning and I quote, if you raise your head, I will blow it off. End quote from the same article, and I quote one of the guests informed me that is lost in jewelry alone was about twenty thousand dollars. There's really no way to set the exact loss, since the

majority of the victims refused to file official complaints. However, several said it would be a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand dollars or possibly more. End quote. The total hall from the robbery would increase over the next few weeks. We know the partygoers did I want to talk to the police because that would lead directly to the I R, S and FBI asking questions. We also know that Chicken

Man was the key suspect in the robbery. And the next day J. D. Hudson was assigned to the case by the Chief of Police, Herberty Jenkins, and the chief saying, Lutana Hudson is running this damn fame. He directly to me and we are not shape the chief shape in the mass THO out about that, and he never make me sense things right right there at that I need the chiefs etect was superlim of the okay, that was

the text. And Lieutenant and you were Detective Blue Tenant and so was he supposed to have He was your boy. But now boom, his boss is telling him that you're in charge of the investigator and I report to him, and you were bort to the chief and what was the chiefs name back then, Perty Jenkins. The chiefs called me and told me you want to be to get the case because none of the huspal talked to the police. We'll not talk to the robber intective, we'll talk to anybody,

and so I started the investigation. When the robbery happened, he took charge. Chief of Police Herberty Jenkins, gave J. D. Hudson a partner, Lieutenant Joe Amos. Amos was working international security at the time, but they were both pulled off their regular assignments and worked this robbery case together for the next several weeks. I remember when day I was coming down Mind of the King and it was shouted after the rocks. I was visible when they were the robbery.

I wouldn't get out of side for five minutes because I don't want to people think I didn't gonna count of money and him and Amos was prob turned around on the sen and uh. He wanted me to come down to the station and identify somethings as I did. H I don't want to knew it that y'all got him do what you can would then robbed me. I don't even want to see rob well, you know what I wanted to. I want to talk to you to see could you have us figure out who the robbers were?

Because I knew that I don't know what you was convinced, but I was convinced that you were not involved because, like I said, I was able to place you in the fight. J D. Hudson new chicken Man was at the fight, so he assumes he had nothing to do with the robbery. How about people who were at the party, did he know any of them? Here's J. D. Hudson and Chicken Man talking about that. I was never really told who all was there for his blacke mank I

didn't want I didn't want to know. I couldn't know who was there and what they did and also find out what happened, because if I started planning to finding who these people were and what that that what they did in life, they would have told me a damn BA, don't read people. They were talked to. That we got people to talk to us is because the local hustitals told him that agree with people, uh that we talked to, you know, and uh no, they could trust it. And

you know, you had to. You had to. You had to decide whether you want to be a basquat detect or racket racket detective, investigator or robbery. My nation was to investigator robbery and talking to some of the hustles, they told the guys who I was all about to be and that they could talk to me because I

didn't care what they did. Wherever they were came from in their owners they asked for saying about we didn't want to better killed in the Atlanta but the chief strected, but don't get the better killer and anybody else killed. The next few days after the robbery, Chicken Man was trying to stay alive and clear his name with the press, the police and the gangsters that he assumed were trying to have him killed, and he was most concerned about

his family's safety. Here's Gordon Williams Jr. Talking about the threats against their lives. People thought he was responsible. Everybody thought my dad set that party up. I mean it came out on the news, It came out everywhere that Chicken Man had set everybody up. You're talking about some pretty dangerous guys who was there, some gangsters. So they

made threats against our family. We had threats about they were gonna blow our house up, they were gonna kill me, my my little sister, they were gonna kill my mom. You know, they were gonna kill us because my dad had taken their money. Fight night. It is 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 Jacobsen, and Noel Brown. Supervising producer is Taylor Hicoyne. Story editors are Noel Brown and Dan Bush. Written by Jeff Keeting and Jim Roberts. Edited by Matt Owen. Mixing and sound designed by Jeremiah Kolonni Prescott music written and performed by The Diamond Street Players. Additional music by Ben Lovett. Audio archives courtesy of WSB News Film and Video Tape Collection, Brown Media Archives, University of Georgia Libraries.

Special thanks to Dr Maurice Hobson and David Davis. Fight Night is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, check out the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.