FAILURE OF JUSTICE-John Ferak

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The crime scene was eerily ritualistic. The trail of evidence turned frustratingly cold, until an astonishing breakthrough occurred four years later. A torn scrap of money recovered at the crime scene became the presumed smoking gun that helped solve the hideous crime. The news of six arrests was absolutely stunning to the locals in this easy going, blue collar community of twelve

thousand residents. But why were six loosely connected misfits who lived as far away as Alabama, Colorado, and North Carolina, being linked to the rape and murder of a beloved Nebrascal widow. As they sat in jail, the constant threatn of Nebraska's barbaric electric chair scared the daylights out of these troubled souls. Except for one of them, Joseph White, remained defiant in his fight to prove his innocence. It

didn't matter. All six of the condemned were convicted of murder and sent away to prison for the ghastly crime. The town moved on, convinced that justice was served. For more than twenty five years, the Beatrice six rotted in prison until the unthinkable occurred in two thousand and eight. Now, the Red state in America's heartland faced a real quandary that could only mean one thing. Nebraska had a colossal

failure of justice on its hands. The book that were featuring this evening is Failure of Justice, A brutal murder, an obsessed cop, and six Wrongful Convictions, with my special guest, journalist and author John Ferrick. Welcome back to the program, and thank you for a green to this interview. John Ferrick, thanks.

population twelve thousand. Tell us a little bit about what it's known for a little bit about Beatrice, Kansas, population twelve thousand, where it's located. Tell us a little bit about.

But Beatrice, Nebraska, is a community. It's been about twelve thousand people for about the last fifty to sixty years. Population has remained stagnant, hasn't gone up or down at all. It's a Christian community. It's considered a suburb of Lincoln, but to its own degree, it also has its own identity. It's probably best known in Nebraska for being a state development home. It's uh it's been a state uh state facility for persons with severe and profound mental retardation mental illness,

uh going back one hundred years and uh. And on the flip side, it has some strong industry manufacturing. It's really well known, really proud of the fact that it's known for for uh uh for its role in the lawnmower industry. It makes UH. There's a there's two or three big companies that have been around for a while that that make a lawn more equipment and law a

lot more parts. So so it has it's a it's a robost community for a smaller community in Nebraska, whereas a lot of smaller towns in Nebraska outside of Lincoln and outside of Omaha have struggled the last thirty or four years as jobs to move toward the big two

cities in Nebraska. But Beatrice has still been able to hang on to itself and still retain that small town charm and identity, and for the most part, it's been a pretty safe community to raise a family and also a safe place to retire if you're a senior citizen as well.

seventies in their eighties, that lived alone. And these attacks typically happened between ten or eleven at night and as early as I believe one or two in the morning. These were and these were these were scary events. All all these situations, either the women were asleep or they were in their room watcher in their living room, I should say, watching television and love and behold, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a young man who was around in his early twenties was standing on top of them,

trying to trying to attack and rape these women. And in all these situations, the women were brave and they fought back, and that seemed to do the trick as far as scaring this individual off. He seemed to be afraid of these women that would fight back. He figured he would get his way with them if they would, a coward to his advances. But to their credit, they all they all fought back or screamed or yelled, and that just scared him and he uh and he ran

off and uh and uh. The police, to their credit, were tried really hard to get the word out, you know, let people know about this. These attacks figure out who the perpetrator was, but nobody really got a good look at him, and so there was just vague general descriptions of a young man that looked to be around age twenty or so, early twenties, very thin and yeah, not of a muscular build. But beyond that, there really wasn't

much for the police and Beatrice to go on. And what really became odd then is that as the police were preparing, you know, for this individual's next attack, trying to figure out where they might strike again in this community, all of a sudden, the attacks stopped. So there have been three or four attacks in about a very short radius.

I believe it's mentioned in the book, but I think somebody had a police officer to point out that if you drew a circle around the whole area, we're only talking to four or five block you know radius as far as where all these attacks occurred. But bottom line is, these attacks stopped after the summer of nineteen eighty three, fall comes, winter comes, nineteen eighty four comes and goes,

and nothing ever happened again. And for the most part, the community forgot, you know, forgot about this perpetrator, this deviant, you know that that was preying upon elderly women by the time nineteen eighty five rolls around. Anne.

and where Florence lived. Just tell us about that whole situation and what they were doing on February fifth that evening as a family.

great grandchildren. Really loved the babysit children, and she also helped out at the Methodist Church in in Beatrice on Sunday mornings, she would help babysit children in the nursery and and she was also she also liked to go on bus trips uh and UH, and she would join these groups the AARP and I go on bus tours. And people really took a liking to Helen because she

was very affectionate, very friendly, and outgoing. And she also liked to take a lot of pictures, so people would actually kind of joke and refer to her as little little miss Sunshine. And she also loved to take a lot of pictures of her own family members. And one of her famous sayings was look natural now when she would take a picture of somebody. So she just had the special persona and everybody liked her and loved her.

And she lived in February of nineteen eighty five. She had lived for the last several years in a three story apartment building that used to be an old telephone company building. It's a three story sturdy brick buil bilding right at the edge of the downtown, so you just walk a block or two and you're you know, you're right in the middle of the heart of the business district in town. And and right next door to her lived her sister, Florence and Florence Florence's husband Ivan, who

everybody in the family referred to as Read. So that was really nice just having Florence and Read right next door to her. Helen didn't drive, so so she was able to lean on her family members to help her out and and and she was also able to just enjoy meals together too, having her sister right next door and her brother in law as well, so it has a very close knit family. And again this apartment building

was only had about ten total units in it. About half the people were senior citizens elderly, and there was also a few uh, twenty somethings, single women or women that lived with other friends that were, you know, just right out of college or just entering the workforce. If that helps kind of paint a picture as far as what Helen's life was like in Beatrice at that time.

in the evening. So tell us just a little bit about that last the last thing that these people remember, and in what state was Helen in just before they.

It was I believe four rooms. It had an open living room, a very very tiny kitchen, a very small bedroom and in a bathroom. And that's really about it. But anyway, they spent some time together just sitting around, and Katie had stepped by, I believe sometime around nine o'clock or shortly thereafter after she finished her bowling that night, and I remember it was sometime shortly before the ten o'clock news came on, is when Darryl and Katie both left.

And what's really important too about that particular night was that it was one of the coldest nights on record in southeastern Nebraska. It was very, very cold, howling winds temperature eventually that night is going to dip to about seven six or seven degrees below zero factor in windchill. It's even colder than that. But that's a key point because there's not going to be that many people out

and about walking around Beatrice, Nebraska. On February fifth, slash February sixth, nineteen eighty five, Katie and Darryl leave around ten o'clock PM. Helen possibly stays up, remains awake for a little longer, eventually goes to bed. And she had been battling she didn't know it at the time, she was battling pneumonia. She just saw she had a bad nagging cough that she had picked up while she was out in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, which is about four hundred and

fifty miles west. She had been out there just a couple of weeks earlier to visit one of her other children, Larry, and Larry's family out there, and it was while she was out there that she picked up this cold, this nagging cough, and didn't realize the severity of this cold. And again she goes to bed sometime late on February fifth of nineteen eighty five.

Florence lives right next door. Her sister lives right next door, so nine am she wants to check on her sister. So tell us what happens in the morning with Florence and how things go that morning.

and wandered through through the and it she wanted. She eventually goes to the bedroom, goes back to the living room and thinks that she sees Helen laying on the floor in the living room, possibly asleep. She goes back and tells her husband, read, uh, just notifies him, you know, about the situation, because obviously it wouldn't make sense for Helen to be sleeping on the floor in her living room.

And Red goes in there next door, and and he's obviously had better eyesight and immediately picked up on, you know, what had happened here, and and he found Helen's nightgown had been pulled up pretty much over her head, exposing her and uh and and he went down and checked her and and realized that she, you know, that she

was dead. And I should also point out too, there was a large scarf that had been woven wrapped around her head several times as well, so you could not see her face, you know, if you approach the body or you know, or it could come into this come into this room. So so so he runs back to the his unit. They immediately called the police, and within just a couple of minutes police officers and and also

an ambulance unit to arrive primuch simultaneously. And this is around nine in the morning now, and and the two ambulance technicians or paramedics went up there and touched the body and checked checked for signs of a pulse and uh, and immediately determined that Helen was dead, and she had been dead for for quite some time and uh, and they eventually uh quickly notified the local police chief, Donald lukeroth Uh and uh there was immediate sense that this

could be a homicide scene. So the local police acted very carefully to make sure that the unit was preserved and nobody touchsd anything that they shouldn't.

So what did they find in terms of the crime scene besides this obvious rape? But tell us what they did find. What was the description of the place in terms of what did the police find?

nearby on the couch. The other things that are important to point out are her are what was left behind. Helen had she kept a lot of money in her apartment.

She had over one thousand dollars in cash that she kept in her bedroom top drawer, and she also had several checks and money market accounts that another several hundred dollars as well that were out in Plane View and UH and UH, and the conventional wisdom was that if this was some type of robbery or somebody was breaking into steel, it didn't make any sense to the place why they would completely overlook taking any of this uh, any of this cash that was just out in Plaine View,

especially considering the crime scene had originated in her bedroom. Her her her sheets and UH and the pillows were ripped off the bed. There was a there was a fair amount of blood, blood stains, blood spatter that was found on her bedroom sheets and also some of it got onto the walls police also found underneath her bed a knife, and there was a knife from her own kitchen, but it appeared that the knife wasn't really used to attack her, but it had been used more or less

to control her by the by the rapist. The belief was that the rapist had had had managed to get inside of her apartment, probably went into her kitchen area, pulled out one of her stake knives and UH and then used that uh to UH to gain control by force of Helen in her bedroom. And eventually the attack moved uh and migrated into the living room, which is where UH, which is where this big scarf was wound

around Helen's face. And also some towels from her bathroom presumably UH were were used to restrain her hands and UH. And so this was clearly a sexual assault that turned into a murder. And again the police didn't see any sign of robbery or stealing of of any items or or that kind of stuff, as as as being a parent at all. So I hope that kind of covered as far as just kind of give people an idea of what was there at the scene of the crime

and UH. And in one of the next things the local police did was then they canvassed the rest of the building to find out if any of the other neighbors, the tenants above the tents below had seen or heard anything, and and and and and and the tenants were of no help at all as far as just absolutely nobody remembered hearing any loud noises, nobody heard any screams, nobody heard any shrieks or anything breaking or any commotion coming from Helen Wilson's apartment unit for.

After she was dead. There was belief that the perpetrator had had spent considerable time inside of her apartment uh during the sexual assault and after the sexual assault. He may have been there for at least an hour, possibly two hours. But uh, but it was apparent that uh that that that scientific evidence this uh between the blood, some hairs that were found on Helen's on her nightgown and then also the sperm, that that scientific evidence would be crucial to helping to try to identify who the

perpetrator was. And again, this is nineteen eighty five, so DNA evidence is still in its very very early stages of uh, you know, of uh of research. It certainly was not a common uh. It certainly wasn't a common in the courts at all yet. So back in nineteen eighty five, police and crime labs primarily relied upon roology tests blood typing tests, and the police were able through the autopsy to determine that the perpetrator, the person that had harmed Helen Wilson, had B type blood and that

he was also I believe non non secretor. This helped them determine that this was a bottom line, this was a very rare blood type that they were looking for. Less than ten percent of the population would have this

type of blood type. So from that point forward, the police department in Beatrice twenty to twenty five member force made the sorology information kind of the focus of their investigation, and when they were interviewing suspects or had leads on potential suspects, they would they would kind of focus in on whether or not this person had this be this be B type blood that was an ansecretor, and that would help them guide their investigation. That kind of helps answer that Dan.

lurking around or hanging around the building recently? And Kathy Gonzalez, who lived above Helen Wilson, was recently divorced, uh and had no children and uh, and she worked at that time at the country club she uh And so she she told the police, you know, she she remembered going to bed the night before she would watch the movie about the Corsican brothers and remembered going to bed around ten o'clock at night. And the police were satisfied with

Kathy's interview. They thought that she was just like pretty much all the other tenants, try to be helpful, but didn't have a whole lot of information to to help the police out. When the police were doing the search, they went outside and just checked the dumpster to see, by chance of any evidence maybe the killer threw away, you know, some evidence, h a weapon, clothing, anything and uh.

And just during their curse research, one of the many items that was fished out of the trash pin just happened to be a bag that had some had some old undergarments on there, including some bras and uh and and it was a package that Kathy Gonzalez had thrown away her her name and I think some letters that she had some mail was kind of all in the

same bag as well. But these bras, these bras of hers, at least one of them in particular, had a little bit of blood on it and uh and at the time, the Mantriss Police Department, you know, just took this in evidence thinking, well, you know, it's blood, but this probably has nothing to do, you know, with this murder case, since the one and Helen Wilson, who lived below, you know, had been a victim of a sexual assault and a rape. So bottom line, yeah, the kathyns Alice braz get taken

into evidence. They're put into storage at the Beatrice Police Department, but nothing really becomes of them. They just kind of sit around for the next several months and become an afterthought in the in the in the murder investigation.

the town and hooks up with Michael Hyatt. They were friends growing up as teenagers, and so, long story short, Hyatt steps shaveling snow and they go bumming around town for a while. They go cruising around the countryside, kind of telling stories, getting caught up on their lives, and Smith pointed out that he was broke you know, penniless. Uh uh. He he had come in from Oklahoma City,

which was where he was living at the time. And and so they agree to hook up later that evening at one of the local downtown bars and and Smith shows up around six or seven I believe Hyatt was already there with another gentleman and a couple a couple

of girls. And Smith gets pretty wasted that night at the bar, and he even makes comments to hie It about how his uh uh, how he's having an erection at the bar and uh, you know and looking kind of scanning over the young women at the at the bar and stuff like that, and uh and even makes a comment to hie It, you know, over a drink, you know, how he wants to get a piece of ass some way, you know, no matter what that that evening, they stay at the bar, I believe, till after midnight,

and and eventually they wind up, all the four of them, I should say, the five of them wind up going out to a real small community, Blue Springs, Blue Springs and win More kind of the same area. But one of the girls that they were with that night had a trailer park out there, so they were going out there just to have a small little after hours gathering, you know, have a few more drinks that kind of stuff. While out there, Smith tries to force himself onto one

of these young ladies and it really causes commotion. It causes the scene, and one of the other trailer park tenants that lived nearby he eventually intervenes, you know, and throws Bruce Smith out of the trailer. So it's a really humiliating scene for Bruce Smith, who's enraged and just pissed off as hell at the world, you know, and really mad that he couldn't get a piece of ass

that night. It's kind of the peacemaker, the whole deal just kind of agrees that, you know, he's going to get Smith out of there and bring this other friend of their's home that night. So so Hyatt puts Smith and the other guy into his vehicle and it's about ten to fifteen minut drive back to be Entrance, and it's sometime between three thirty and four in the morning now too. And again, as I pointed out earlier, it's one of the coldest knights on the record. It's six

or seven degrees below zero. Michael Hyatt drops off the other fella first at his house. I actually should say he drops the other fella off first and then pulls up. I believe it's Fifth Street in Court Street. It's a it's a popular intersection in town. But that's where Smith agrees to get out, and and so Hyatt pulls away and and and Smith gets dropped off about a block to a block and a half away from the apartment building where Helen Wilson, where Helen Wilson's murder and rape

takes place. Uh that that same evening that you know, either the previous night or early that uh, that morning. And as far as with Bruce Smith, then a couple of days later, he's gonna eventually uh drift out of town.

But uh but again uh he he had these issues involving women and uh and again as soon as this rape and murder had happened for Helen Wilson, h Hyatt even thought to himself that this was kind of suspicious, and he even went to the police and suggested that they look at Bruce Allen Smith as a potential suspect, just given the close proximity you know, of where the murder had happened, and just Bruce Smith's behavior that night before, when they were all drinking, you know, talking about women

that night.

energy and less emphasis on Bruce Smith. And then one thing that's important to point out too, Dan, is that it seems that Smith is completely overlooked. They don't even really think about Bruce Smith, and in connection with those sexual assaults, those rapes that had happened in the summer of nineteen eighty three. In nineteen eighty five, when Helen

Wilson's raped and murdered, it's a singular focus. They're only focused in on trying to figure out, you know, who is the culprit of this crime, even though in the back of their mind, you know, they remember and know that there were these three other three to four other sexual assault attempts that had happened a year and a

half earlier. Even though Smith is on the raider now, they they really put forward, I would say, a lackluster effort, you know, to really dig into Bruce Smith's background, you know, and try to tie him at least to those other sexual assaults.

And it's really weird, It's really odd. As other people point out to me, because as we as you mentioned, there was at least another murder out in Oklahoma City that the at least Oklahoma City authorities were you know, looking at Bruce Smith as a POS suspect on and you have this nineteen eighty one rape that Smith was

arrested for that was never prosecuted out there. But what happens is when the when the two Nebraska investigators go out to interview Smith out in Oklahoma City, it's the Oklahoma City police that that that decides that they're going to handle you know, Bruce Smith, and so he's not questioned at all really in connection with this murder. He doesn't even know, you know, that these guys from Nebraska out there to interview him about this this widow's murder.

They just are Oklahoma City just is able to get some samples of Bruce Smith just for elimination purposes on this Nebraska case. And that's really as far as it's going to go.

the potential suspect is in this type of crime. And Klinsman is convinced that it's a loner, a young sexually confused male who's between ages twenty to twenty five, skinny, probably uh lives either by himself or with or with a mother and and but just hates women, resents women, and probably has a bad relationship with either his own mother, a great mother, or an aunt. But just uh, this is somebody that that really that this was an anger you know, type of an anger retaliatory type of rape.

So Helen Wilson was was more or less used by by the perpetrator, uh to take out his anger and revenge you know, on other women that that this individual had hated. So Klosem puts it together, and then he also analyzes the fact that all this money was left behind and how the how the how the rapist uh didn't took no money pretty much from the place the

place is in in you know, it's it's immaculate. There's no sign of uh, you know of uh turned over chairs or you know, or you know, broken furniture, nothing like that at all. It's this you know, type of eerie, creepy, you know, ritualistic type of scene. You know, where where the scarf was bound around Helen's face, you were the towels that were used to restrain her hands. The fact that the autopsy showed that necrophilia had occurred, and so all the science pointed to that this was a rape.

But the perpetrator didn't necessarily intend for Halan Wilson to die in this crime. But nonetheless that's what happened very tragically.

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Apron a better way to cook. Now, as you're introducing your book, and I guess we'll get you to explain a little bit where this Gauge County and the Beatrice Police Department, there becomes a shift and you introduce this incredible character, a former detective with the Beatrice Police, Bert Circe, and he's in his mid thirties. So tell us in nineteen eighty five, what Bert Searcy's doing and why he's doing it, and his former stint as a police officer, and what had happened.

with some of the other detectives. Uh, they kind of viewed him as a as a flashy, egotistical, kind of know it all type of guy who really didn't work well with other people on the force, really didn't get along with the police chief who had been there pretty much his whole life. And it was a very likable, you know, figure in that department. So when Bird Seriously left the police department, police chief made comments to others so that that he wasn't said sorry to see him go.

And Sercy then had the audacity to reapply for a job about two years later, and the long story short, the city of Beatrice did not rehire him for the job. This only further deepened the animosity that Seriously had toward the Beatrice Police Department. So when Helen Wilson's murder happens, Circe starts to think that this is the case in the crime that he had uh the ability, uh special skills to solve, and he didn't think very highly of

his former colleagues at the police department. So seriously starts going around town knocking on doors, you know, and just kind of listening to the small town rumor mill and grapevine as far as kind of who, uh you know, who might be the culprit of this type of crime.

knocking on doors. Uh and uh and uh and and he eventually gets a tip and develops this uh, this tip that somehow, uh, somehow a troubled young woman whose name was Joanne Taylor, who really wasn't from the interest, but it bounced in the town a couple of different times in her life. But but this tip that Bert seously gets is that supposedly Joanne Taylor and another fellow named Joseph White, supposedly these two had had had admitted

to the crime that Joanna had confessed. Those two were the primary culprits of this crime under a theory that this was a robbery, a pre planned robbery you know that that turned into murder and uh and uh and and the thing is, the Beatrice Police Department they had heard these kinds of different stories. There was all kinds of goofy stories and rumors floating around town at the

bars and stuff like that. So so the Beatrice Police Department knew Joanne Taylor, they knew Joseph White, they knew some of their other friends that they kind of hung around with, and uh and really didn't give them any any credibility. In fact, Joseph White left Beatrice just a matter of weeks after the murder. But before he did, he even stopped at the Beatrice Police department and talked with one of the detectives you know and uh and uh and showed him his uh military ID card that

he used to have. Uh and uh and Joe White used to have a type well he had type of blood. So so, but White made it clear he was leaving town. He was going back to his home state available Amma, you know, which is where he grew up. Just to make it clear. He wasn't running or hiding or you know, going in the seclusion, but he was just leaving because he was homesick and you know, wanted to kind of move on. There was really nothing for him in Beatrice.

But again, Bert seerusly, this hog farmer just comes up with this theory that that this this lead this tip, this gossip that this local high school girl named Lisa Brown was telling the different people that that seriously becomes convinced that this absolutely has to be true and that he somehow has got something, you know, that his former colleagues at the Beatrice Police Department just weren't smart enough or were too stupid to follow up on and treat seriously.

So so nineteen eighty seven, about two years later, there have been new election and new sheriff elected a guy named Jerry DeWitt, former Nebraska state trooper who kind of worked the highways and did road patrol, really had no experience handling murder cases. But but Jerry was kind of a show ball. He liked he liked the attention and uh and uh, and really didn't have a good relationship with the Beatrice Police Department. But Dewake gets elected as

the sheriff. One of his first things he does is hire Bert Seriously onto the police force at the Sheriff's office, and the sheriff is convinced that because Gage County also encompasses the county seat the city of Beatrice, that therefore that gave him the ability uh to investigate crimes in the city of Beatrice. So Seriously just kept keeps pestering him,

keeps pestering him for a long period of time. Finally DeWitt says, okay, fine, you know, he he gives he gives in, and lets seriously take over the city's investigation. Unbeknown to the city police department. Is as crazy as it sounds, Dan, Yeah.

ripped five dollars bill. And as a result of the five dollars bill, what does he theorize and what does he as he theorizes, what does he want to make work in terms of that theory?

bill that's on the floor. So again the answers police department, they just thought this was a diversion, that there was no this. You know, this was the killer trying to throw them off, the perpetrator trying to throw them off. I didn't mean that much to them. But but seriously develops this theory that somehow this was a crude signature. It was kind of a uh, a clue that was

left behind intentionally by Joseph White. So uh so so seriously spends a lot of time trying to prove his theory that somehow Joe White was was uh a regular at meeting up with people at parties and ripping up money as part of this uh as part of this trick that's supposedly White would do involving uh beer parties where he'd rip up a bill and tell people name front incident, name a dairy product, and then name a

movie and eventually ends up gone with the wind. But uh, but this was very very sketchy and and most of his friends, you know, denied seeing White ever do this. But but serious, he's able to eventually get this, uh, this teenage informant that he knew. Uh, Lisa Brown to go along with this story, and she tells him that she's seen White do the sun on dozens of occasions, you know, a different beer drinking parties and stuff like that. Uh,

that that that White was fine of doing this. So so seriously's convinced that this ripped five dollar bill was just part of Joe White's signature. So that Joe White, uh, after he committed the rape and uh and participated in the murder of Helen Wilson, that he somehow grabbed, uh, you know, some money out of her purse and ripped this five dollar bill in half, left half of it on the floor to taunt the police, and they investigated the crime.

her teens and early twenties. She had had at least two of her children at that point in time had been had been taken from her by the by the courts just because she was determined to be an unfit parent. She had had a lot of problems with with with drugs, like not just may want to but we're talking heavy stuff like PC p lsd uh that that type of stuff yellow jackets. She was she was really into a hallucinogenic type of drugs. Uh, in addition to having these

severe psychiatric problems and delusional behavior. So uh, so Joanne when she's questioned, she's taken in the custody in North Carolina, and and she goes along with the theory that thought she might have participated in some crime with with her

friend Joseph White, who whose nickname was Lobo. But the story she gives is about about going to a house, a small house uh and uh and going there with Joseph White to uh to trim the the somebody's trees and going into the house and asking for permission to

get a glass of iced tea. And somehow this this turns into this uh robbery, you know, slash murder, and that Joe White pulled out a buck knife more or less and and just stabbed this lady uh knew numerous times, you know, up and down her body, which was clearly one actually inaccurate because again this is a three story apartment building, This crime happened in the middle of winter time, there were no trees to be trimmed in Nebraska, and uh, and there was no knife that was used to kill

Helen Wilson. Sears is able to eventually finagle, you know, talk Joanne into change in her story and eventually getting her to to agree that she participated in this crime with Joseph White and that really happened in an apartment building and uh. And he's able to work her worker over, along with some help from a from a psychologist who who also moonlighted on the sheriff's department, a fellow by the name of Wayne Price. Meanwhile, I should point out

Joe White gets taken into custody in Alabama. He's pulled from his house in the late at night, and he's just aghast, he can't believe, he doesn't know what the hell is going on, can't believe it, and just uh just as amazed and just pissed off as hell, you know, being told that he's being arrested for some murder you know of an elderly woman back in Nebraska from some

uh firs from some four years ago. So he he he he he kind of uh uh uh, just remains very defiant, you know, and doesn't give a confession, unlike Joanne Taylor who caved under pressure.

are their blood types? As they do become involved in this and they are checked, what is their blood types?

and Winslow had had his own problems in life. He had had battle a lot of depression and was was an easy person to manipulate, and and he got caught up in his own crime wave. A couple of years after this Allan Wilson murder, he teamed up with a with a scoundrel of a guy, a guy named Cliff Sheldon, involving a robbery at a motel that loved a clerk, a badly beaten hit over the head with a tire iron.

But uh, but Winslow is in the jam since he's in jail for that crime, so uh he he eventually uh he he, I mean, he initially denied had any

involvement whatsoever in this crime, this Helen Wilson attack. But knowing that he's in in in a jam for for going that he could be going to prison for many years, he he goes along with seriously theory that somehow he let his car get borrowed by Joanne Taylor in Joseph White, and then that's gonna snowball and change and uh and the story is eventually going to transform into Winslow also driving the vehicle, you know, and going up to Helen

Wilson's apartment and going inside of her apartment, and and and where it kind of gets a little crazy. Is that again? Seriously wanted to find somebody that had some connection because I'm still trying to figure out how could this be a pre pre planned robbery if Joanne Taylor, Tom Winslow, and Joseph White really don't know this Helen Wilson at all, this elderly widow. And that's kind of where Debbie Shelde balls in the in the place for

for seriously, Wie uh was a distant cousin. Helen Wilson was her her great aunt, and the family was a little suspicious of Debbie to begin with. She wasn't really all there. Uh she had uh she had uh. She had been special education uh throughout high school and just really struggled in life. She was what even her own lawyer would call a low functioning real please a very compliant individual, and somebody that will be easy to trick

and manipulate. And uh so. Debbie initially denied any involvement in this crime as well, but when kind of push came to shove, when she was threatened with the possibility of having her child taken away from her, she she changed her story. Look at his split and went along with Serious's theory that the Debbie also went to this apartment of her great aunt and the Debbie was the one that knocked on the door and h you know, and her aunt answered the door and then was bull rushed.

Helen Wilson was bull rushed by by Joe White, Joe Anne Taylor, Tom Winslow, and Wie went into the place as well. Where again it gets confusing is that none of these four individuals H had proper blood type that matches up with with with the perpetrator. The perpetrator had type B blood and was UH was a nonsecretor. All four of them did not have this UH this blood type.

So there's gonna be a fifth person that's taken in the custody guy that just happens to have the name of H James Dean, and Dean's taken into custody UH just a couple of days after w G. Sheldon and UH, and the same same situation with James Dean. He doesn't

have the right blood type either. So you got five people now sitting in custody and UH and a matter of weeks later, finally seriously found somebody that had type B blood and that somebody was at Katy Gonzalez, the woman that had lived in the apartment unit directly above Helen Wilson, and and she lived in Colorado at this point in time and was working at uh at at a fish market at a nice hotel in Denver and just gets pulled out of a pulled out of the

kitchen by Seriously and the sheriff, and as told, she's being arrested in connection with this, with his murder. And that's kind of at that point in time is when the investigation ends. In Seriously's mind, he at least found somebody with the type B blood and that could at least put the rest that big fear, you know, that the prosecutor had would have to deal with as far as how do we explain this type B blood that

was left at the crime scene. They were at least able to pin that on, you know, or blame blame it on Kathy Gonzalez, and really hope that the defense whoever the defense floyers were in this case, wouldn't really delve into this and kind of overlooked the scientific aspect of this case. Because the state crime Lab determined that Kathy Gonzalez's blood type. Although she had a B type blood, she did not have the same specific genetic markers as the bee type of blood that was actually found in

Helen Wilson's bedroom. And obviously Kathy Gonzalz couldn't produce spurm either. So but that was again completely overlooked by Bird seriously and the prosecution team that was gonna embark on moving forward with six murder cases involving the death of Helen Wilson.

knew Dick Smith. He was a big, burly guy, very authoritative figure, very imposing figure, and he really belittled police officers and uh and really was a micromanager beyond words can even explain, but just really uh, it was an intimidating force and uh and a lot of cops were scared of him, they hated him, and and but but defense attorneys a lot of public defenders around town also kind of winced and uh and and really would bend

over backwards or would cower to Dick Smith. So uh so in this case, here, Dick, the art of Dick Smith was really the plea bargain process. Dick really despised or or didn't like to take cases of the trial. He Uh, he would either charge what he felt was the right charge, or he would overcharge people and uh and eventually uh try to work out a deal with with the other or their public defender to avoid uh the protracted uh you know, time and energy and resources

that are spent taking a case of trials. So uh, that was Dick Smith's strategy here with this with these beatrice six individuals, and and in in a an astonishing amount of time, uh, barely two weeks after Debbie Sheldon was charged as an aider and a better as an accessory, I should say, in this crime, Dick Smith was able to work out a plea bargain with her lawyer, Paul Koislan, her public defender, and so that made front page news. But more importantly, that was a domino that had domino effects.

So you had now one key defendant now that had rolled over and was now working with the police or I shoots to the Sheriff's office and the prosecution two uh to help think the other individuals, and that after that, James Dean's attorney, a fellow who was later disparred for unrelated matters by a guy named Richard Smelling, who didn't

believe in James Dean's innocence. And even though Dean was adamant absolutely no way he could have been involved in his crime, doesn't remember anything, Smelling eventually gets gets his client to start meeting with doctor Price, the psychologist, and Price convinces Dean, you know that he just repressed. He's repressing these memories because it was such a traumatic and horrible event, and initially convinces Dean that somehow he was there, he was president at the crime scene. And really he's

in a jam. He's in a really big hole here, and the only way to get out of this is the plead guilty to a lesser included felony. You know, he's going to do some prison time, a few years, five years, but he's not going to get the electric chair, you know, which was what Dean was constantly told that the Sheriff's office was a very real possibility if he didn't, you know, cooperate in the greed to start fingering Winslow and Joe White as the ringleaders in this horrible, despicable

crime that it happens. So you get two of these individuals to plead guilty really really quickly. Joan Taylor she pleads guilty not that long afterwards as well, even though she can't really remember being at this crime scene, she's willing to go along with the you know, with what the police are saying because you know, they're the one's saying that she did it, and she's hearing that other

people are pleading guilty to the crimes. So these people are showing videos of the crime scene, they're showing photos of the crime scene. They're taken from the jail and actually taken to the apartment complex, you know, and walked around in it. So it's really like a horrible, bad

movie that's playing out in their lives. But that's the way Dick Smith was operating because he wanted to get these other individuals convicted and to do that, he needed to have first first rate witnesses, uh, people that could testify against whoever would remain a holdout or be a

defiant individual. And the defiant individual is gonna turn out to be Joseph White from Alabama, real tall, skinny stringbean, you know, who really had some minor skirmishes with the law in his life, but nothing absolutely nothing like a rape and a murder of an elderly woman at all.

So Joe White's gonna be the loan holdout, and he's going to refuse to accept a plea barga and really get anger Dick Smith knowing that he's gonna have to go to the trial, you know, on this case, and you know, and and spend inordinate amount of time in preparing, you know, for for a trial in this in this crime.

for that crime. Joanne Taylor also pleaded guilty before Joe White's trial as well, and this was a really shrewd, typical Dick Smith move. He told her that he would argue at the sentencing for a fifteen year sentence for her, which in her mind was okay, I'll be out in seven years. But there was no way the judge was going to give earth a fifteen year prison sentence for this crime concerned this was a rape and a murder of an elderly woman that you know, this was a

shocked the conscious of the town. So Joanne Taylor is going to get a forty year prison sentence, this whole deal and these are all these are all people though they didn't get their sentence until after they would testify at Joe White's trials. So in their mind, they were doing absolutely everything they could to appease and please to Smith the prosecutor, thinking that the more they helped, the

less time they're going to serve for this crime. And and and as sad in the heart as this may be for listeners to understand, by this point in time, all these individuals had convinced themselves believed that they somehow were absolutely one hundred percent involved in this crime. They they went, they they they were they were manipulated by that psychologist, uh doctor Wayne Price, and uh and they started to come around and believe that they must have

had a blackout. They repressed these memories. They they really felt bad and sorrowful for this crime. And it felt that they had had some culpability and uh and uh and and and and some remorse for participating this crime. So so they were more than willing to uh to go to bats and uh and show up in court and testify and implicate Joe White as the primary perpetrator in this god awful crime that happened in in apartment unit four.

Tell us about what Tina Vath does and what happens after two thousand and five, after an attorney White got someone interested, and you also mentioned a again, a judicial crusader that fought for post conviction DNA tests in Nebraska. So tell us briefly about what happens.

of Helen Wilson. And just at that point in time, while this is going on, this Tina Vatts, who had originally come from Scott's Bluff, Nebraska, she had become friends in the nineteen nineties with Bert Sears and Circe's wife, Cindy.

By then, Seiously had left the police department, I should say, the Sheriff's department, and owned a liquor store in in Beatrice, and and and and Tina had heard some of these stories from seriously about how he solved this crime, you know, and became a hero, local hero for this crime for solving it. And I really didn't know anything about the case, frankly, other than what she had heard se you know, from

from Cirrus's version of events. And eventually what's gonna happen is Tina herself is going to be become a police officer. She starts as a radio dispatcher at the Beatrice Police Department and then, you know, because a patrol officer and is really good at it, and it's really well liked in the department, and she's going to become an investigatory detective herself. And it's going to be around this timeframe of two thousand and six, two thousand and seven when

she's gonna get pulled into this case. And it's only along the lines of just trying to determine what evidence still exists, you know, to see whether or not these two convicted murders can get from the old evidence tested in the case. And she goes down the basement and and to her department's credit, they had saved all the original evidence from the crime scene and kept it really immaculate shape. It was saved in a cardboard boxes, was

kept in the climate controlled room in the basement. And so she's gonna send out some of these, uh, these old articles and artifacts of evidence uh to to the University of Nebraska Medical Center for sophisticated in advanced to DNA testing, and this is gonna be done late two thousand and seven, during the early months of two thousand

and eight, and to speed things up along. It's really going to come back as a as a shocker for her and the fellow that's the current the new prosecutor at that point in time, a guy named Randy Rittenauer. They're gonna they're gonna learn that that these DNA tests don't come back to Tom Winslow and Joseph White, and

that's gonna be a real head scratcher for them. And it's eventually going to cause uh uh the Attornined General's Office of Nebraska to get involved in the case and basically reopen this investigation and kind of start this case from scratch from ground zero. With the intention of trying to prove that the Beatri six were all one hundred percent involved in this crime. And they're going to start this case from scratch and really pull out more of the old fiscal evidence, send that in for as well

for additional testing. And and again, these other items there were left at the crime scene don't match up with Joseph White or Tom Winslow and or any of the other four individuals that were convicted long ago for this nineteen eighty five murder case.

And even in the face of this in this investigation which ends up being police wrongdoing, so you would think that something would happen, that justice would be much swifter and these and again I'm skipping ahead a little bit, but these people all eventually get released. But there still is something about compensation, and there is still something about this total exoneration and the fight that against this, against these people and against their compensation. So tell us a little bit about that.

of dumped them out there. And so they really had no money, no type of art. There was no retribution for them in place at that point time. It's going to take them several years just to get to stay in Nebraska to cut them a check to make up for the many years of heartache and pain and you know, agony that they experienced in prison. Many states already had something on the books to offer compensation for prisoners that were wrongfully convicted, but Nebraska didn't at this point in time.

So and then on top of that, then they move ahead with a federal civil rights lawsuit deprivation of rights case against Gage County and Bert Searcy and Wayne Price. A psychologist didn't shriff Jerry de Witt as well, and that's going to become a long protracted legal battle. The lawsuit gets filed in July of two thousand and nine, and the county hires several outside law firms that just really litigate this case to death, basically, just to string

it out and drag it out. And the county's dying for themselves, but but to prolong any type of you know, payment to make amends with these poor, you know, tragic figures here the Beetra sixth uh and it's not really going to be until until June of twenty sixteen, So just just two months ago when the case finally goes to a trial. The first trial ended up in a hungury mistrial was declared Jerry couldn't come up with a

conclusion and uh. But the second trial happens just this past June, and uh, and they just were able to win twenty eight point one million dollars verdict against Gage County and Bert Searcy and Wayne Price, and uh. And that's been appealed, and you know, and it may take another you know, number of weeks, if not years, before that ultimately gets rectified.

as they did. But when Debbie Sheldon, you know, gets around for her pardon, you know, and to testify, you know, she still goes along with the story or the belief that somehow she was present, you know, that she witnessed her great aunt's rape and murder taking place, and that she somehow got you know, knocked out in the middle

of the scuffle. But she's still you know, going along with the story that somehow she she must have been involved in the crime, you know, because she had spent the last you know, twenty years believing that or you know, or being manipulated into believing that, And so she struggled, you know, with the reality that she had been exaggerated and was being told by you know, lawyers, by the Nebraska Attorney General, who had no incentive in the world,

you know, to get involved in this case. It was politically to his detriment as far as you know, he made more enemies and friends, you know, as a Republican conservative to open up this case and then and tell the you know, tell the town and tell the county you know, that they have been wrong all these years. So it was politically in you know, not to his

advance to get involved. But again, as you said with Debbie Sheldon, she's just really struggled, you know, with with with the reality as far as what's real and what's not real, you know, and that you know, she still struggles, I think to this day, frankly, I think she's gone. Now she's convinced, you know, twenty sixteen that she wasn't

involved in it. But uh, but there's been a long period of time, even when she was set free, you know, where she's still questioned whether or not she was present and participated, you know, in this in this awful crime, you know, this rape and murder of her of her great aunt.

He reunites with his high school sweetheart and despite these twenty years in prison, tries to rebuild his life and is looking forward to part of Some of these people hadn't agreed to settlement, so he had received twenty five thousand dollars and he was awaiting his four hundred and seventy five thousand dollars and was going to get married and had basically essentially grabbed hold of his life again

and gotten it back. What We'll leave it at that, because I said, there's many things in this book that in the end of this book you talk about and so and again a still more fascinating information that we haven't covered than I'll leave for people to discover themselves in this book. I want to thank you very much John for coming on talking about this. If people are interested in is there any way through Wild Blood Press

that there is UH sign copies available? UH, and tell us about your website or contact information if people are so interested yeah.

find it through Barnes and Noble. It's available through through you know, most bookstores, but again kindle versions E book versions are very popular to stay and also the audiobook was produced by Kevin Pierce, who's a well known true crime narrator who's done numerous true crime books and does a fascinating job. So again. For audiobook listeners, I would suggest to give the Kevin Pierce version of Failure Justice a try.