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You are now listening to True Murder the most shocking Killers in true crime history and the authors that have written about him. Gaesy Bundy Dahmer The Nightstalker VTK. Every week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host journalist and author Dan Zupanski.
Good Evening. Stephen B. Small died in one of the most terrific ways a person can die, being buried alive. He was one of the richest men in Kankakee, Illinois, in nineteen eighty seven, which made him the target of a desperate cocaine dealer who wanted to collect a million dollar ransom. Everything went tragically wrong. Danny Edwards was caught, convicted, and was sentenced to death. His life was spared after all death sentences were commuted to life in prison by
Governor George Ryan. A conviction of Danny Edwards was a sure thing. However, political pressure the Small family was at the top of kankkin Key's powerful elite, brought in the top prosecutors in the state so that they could use Edward's case against his girlfriend, Nancy Rish. Their case against her was flimsy at best. Every piece of forensic evidence
at the trial cleared Nancy Rish. Not one piece of evidence and not one witness testimony proved her guilt, but she was convicted on the conjecture and false assertions of the prosecutors. There was no more evidence against her than the supposition that she had to know what Edwards was planning. Every public defender and lawyer refused to defend her because of alleged conflict or fear of the local powers. Everything was set up to railroad this woman into prison. She
did not get a fair trial. She didn't stand a chance. If Danny Edwards had picked any other victim, his girlfriend never would have been prosecuted. Nancy Rish got small justice. Nancy Rish is innocent. Danny Edwards did not cooperate with the police, and he never talked about the details of his crime until now. Danny Edwards and Nancy Rish have given their first in depth interviews from prison to author
Jim Ridings for this book. The incredible story and previously unknown background details are told here for the first time. This is not just the story of a sensational kidnapping and murder, is also the story of how a corrupt system was able to convict an innocent woman and send her to prison for life. The book that were featuring This evening is Small Justice with my special guest journalist and author Jim Ridings. Welcome back to the program. Thank
you very much for this interview. Jim Ridings, Thank you, Dan, thank you so much for this interview. Let's start off with introducing Steven Small and the Small family and what is their importance in kanka Key, Illinois.
Well, all has happened in Kanka Key, which is a city of about twenty seven thousand people about an hour south of Chicago. The Small family has been the most prominent family in Kanka Kee for more about one hundred years. Stephen Small's great grandfather was Len Small, who was governor of Illinois for eight years in nineteen twenty. He was the most corrupt politician the state had ever seen. Connected to Clamho, connected to Alcopoon, and so on and so forth.
The family used the bill gotten games to buy farm and newspapers, radio stations. They owned the daily paper in kanka Keek. Stephen Small, as I said, is the great grandson. He was worth tens of millions.
All the Small part.
This may him a target or somebody who wanted to kidnap.
Now, speaking of that, let's introduce Danny Edwards and what were his criminal charges in April nineteen eighty seven, conditions of his sentence, and the arrangement he had with authorities as a result.
Danny Edwards was a longtime drug dealer. He had been busted in early nineteen eighty seven. He faced after thirty years in prison, but the authorities wanted to get a higher up drug dealer. They focused on somebody named Mitch Levitt. They made a deal with Danny. They say, we'll give you probation if you help us bust Levitt, if you give us the name of a number of customers, and if you help us side out who was leaking information from the courthouse. Danny did give them the names of
eighteen people and what they bought. He agreed to set up Mitch Levitt. They met at a place near Chicago where Danny was supposed to buy a certain amount of cocaine. To Levitt, was was smart. He knew that something was up. Danny had a cut on his face and Mitch thought maybe the police had gotten him and beat him up a little bit. And Danny also had undercover policeman waiting outside in the car, so Levitt wouldn't deal with them
he just walked out. Well, Danny failed to set the guy up, but they still gave him probation anyway, because that was part of the deal. They kept to the deal, but Danny wasn't going to deal any more drugs for a while because he knew he was going to go away for a long time and he got caught. So he decided to that he would kidnap mister Small, one of the wealthiest men in Yanky Tee and most politically powerful men. He would kidnap him to hold him for
a million dollar grants. He spent months working on this plan. It didn't have much thought to it. He got some wood and he started building a flywood box. The attention was that he was going to go out to the sand hill, the wooded sand hill outside of town, dig a hole and put the box in, kidnapped mistress Ball and take him out and put him in the box and cover it up and then make some make some calls. And that's what he did.
Let's talk about Nancy Rish and her relationship with Danny Edwards. Tell us the living situation at this time in September nineteen eighty seven. But tell us go backwards and tell us a little bit about the relationship and how you would characterize it, and tell us a little bit more about Nancy Rish Well.
Danny and Nancy had met in the bar and he pursued her. She held him off for a while, but eventually eventually she gave them. Danny ended up divorcing his wife and Danny and Nancy moved in, but they had problems and they were not exactly getting along, so Danny. After the drug bust, Danny set Nancy up in the townhouse and he continued to live in the house where they had lived. Because he had no more money coming in drug deal, he could afford to pay for both late.
So since he was paying for Nancy's townhouse, he told her he wanted to move in. She could hardly say no that he was he was paying the bill, so he moved in.
Let's talk about this kidnapping that you talked about that Danny Edwards had planned, maybe not planned so well or but he had planned this for many, many months. He built the box with the assistant of Nancy's cousin, who he was at least pretending to work for once in a while. But he had much in terms of skills. But you talk about September second, nineteen eighty seven, which was a Wednesday, and Stephen Small was asleep with his wife Nancy when the phone rang at twelve thirty am.
Their fifteen year old son Ramsey answered the phone. Tell us about this phone call.
Yeah, this was just after midnight, the son answered the phone. Man on the phone said that this is Officer so and so. That can't be police department. There's been a buglary at your father's place of business. He needs to come down. The son said, is this important. They've gone to bed. He said, yes, this is important. I need to talk. The son put Stephen on the line and the man on the phone said, this is a department. You need to come down here and the sear of
the building and identify the item stolen. So mister Small got dressed and he went outside. He opened the garage. He got in his Mercedes. The man on the phone was not a policeman. It was Danny Edward. He was posing as a policeman to get mister Fall to come out of the house. When mister Small got in the car, Danny got on the other side, pointed a gun at him and said let's go. So add mister Small drive out of town to this wooded area in the sandhill.
He forced mister Small to make a tape recording telling his wife that he'd been kidnapped and they wanted money.
These are the.
Instruction and so on and so forth. Then after he made the tape, Danny Edwards forced mister Small into the wooden box to the end the ground. He then the lid on the box and covered it with sand. Then Danny went. He ran maybe a half mile or a mile or shelf to a point where he had told Nancy to pick him up at a certain time, and then he went home.
Now tell us about what happens at the Small residence and the phone call they received and its contents.
Well, he had gotten mister Small out of the house after midnight, about three thirty am, Danny called the Small house and talked to missus Small and said, we have your husband. We've kidnapped him. We want a million dollars and I will call you and let you know about the detail. Well, she called family member and they called
with their lawyer, and they called the police. And since it was a kidnapping, the FBI was called, and the FBI came to the house, and they set up surveillance, and they set up a wire camp in case Edwards would call back again.
Now, what were the We just didn't mention this, but this box that he was placed in and in sand give us more about theccommodations that were made by Danny Edwards when he put Steven Small in this box and what he told them in terms of when he likely would be out of this box, and what he did he provide.
It was quite a large box. It was not well made because he didn't have any kind of a skill, and it took him weeks. Anybody else could have made the box could have nailed it back up in two days less, it took Danny weeks. And even so it wasn't a well made. He had a light in the box hooked up to a car battery. He had some candy bars. He filled an old milk jug with cap water, and he told mister Small the pipe coming out of the side of the box would provide enough air for
two days. I guess mister Small believed him. This got in the box, he would put the fight and then Danny covered up the box and he left what he called at three thirty. All this was set in motion, and he said he would call back that afternoon. He did call back about five pm, and he went to a nearby town and he paid well. The FBI had a PAF on the phone, so they were able to tell where the phone call was coming from. And Danny said he would call back again that evening, and he did.
The FBI staked out that phone call. So this town is so small it only had three payphones in the whole town, and this was a time when payphones were all over the cliffs. The FBI staked out the payphone thinking that hoping that he was dumb enough to come back and use the same phone. Well, he wants dumb enough to come back, and he used one of the other papons, so they for some reason, he had Nancy and drive him to all of these call livingly, I asked him, why, Peter Lump, you know, I don't know.
I just wasn't thinking.
What were the directions that he gave to a horrified and confused Nancy Malls in terms of for the ransom and regarding the police and denominations of money, give us all the details that she could hear. And was there some issue with the quality of the tape recording.
Yeah, he told her small than I domination non executive started giving directions of where to take the money, but it was so confused and so garbled that she couldn't quite understand it. But it didn't matter, because it just didn't happen. This was the five to five PM phone call, and the FBI got the license, played off the car, and by the time Danny got back to his house, the police were already taking out his townhouse because they knew the name and the address from getting a license.
But later that evening, it's an eleven thirty. He called back and again he went to the same same payphone, and he made some more more demands. Now, one thing about paypones. In those days, some payphones were not phone boosts. They were standalone phones on a pole, and you could drive up to the phone and reach out the car window and make a phone call while sitting in the car. Nancy drove him to these things, but he didn't pull
a payphone into the car. He had Nancy park ten feet away each time, and then he got out to use the payphone because she didn't know what was going on. He didn't want her to know what was going on, and this is substantiated by the FBI surveillance on the later ransom calls. He made out the paypalone. You know, they saw her part ten feet away, and they saw Danny get out. Kind of confusion, white, white, are you
getting out? And use the phone from the car. Well, he didn't use the phone from the car because he didn't want Nancy to know what was happening.
What did Nancy assume was happening? Given the reputation and character of her boyfriend.
She might have assumed that maybe he was back into dirk room, but she didn't ask too many questions because he was physically abusive to her many times, and in fact, that week of the kidnapping, he was so jumping up tight. She asked him, what's going on that with you, lord? I've than usual. He pulled out a gun, put it to her head and said, if you don't stop asking questions, I'm going to blow your head off. Then I'm going
to go upstairs and blow your son's head off. She didn't ask any more questions after.
Tell us about the arrest, the circumstances, and then before we talk about out them both being arrested and then brought in for questioning.
Well, the police knew who they were and where they lived the day of the kidnapping because they had taped home, but they didn't want to move in on them because they thought it might endanger mister Small's life. So they let it go for about two days and they finally decided, you know, enough times gone by, we're moving it. So they raided the apartment with guns drawn and took Danny and Nancy and to her loose state for questions. Danny
wasn't saying anything. He wasn't in a talkow. Nancy cooperated because she didn't know what the heck was going on. She was questioned for four days, thirteen hours over four days, and there's not much she could have told them because she didn't know anything. You know, kidnapping, what are you talking about? They asked her a few questions about the whereabox and then they're kidnapping and you know the tape recordy that Danny had mister Small news have you ever
seen that? And she said no, no, you know she did because she was scared, he was confused. And that time she's still covering up for Danny that she didn't know what the situation was.
She was trying to cooperate, did she what did she establish for the police?
According to her, Well, she finally told exactly what happened as far as Danny making her drive, these paypon and the whole week the kidnapping. Danny was all up tight about this and that, and she acted normal. You know, she took the dog to the bad she went to her peewee's football game, She helped the friends do this and that, and they all didn't acting normal. You know, she wouldn't be acting normal if she knew what was going on.
So what happens in terms of Danny Edwards doesn't want to talk. They have a bunch of really damning evidence against him, including witnesses. What do they have in terms of real hard evidence against Danny Edwards? And what is the prosecution's plan Before we talk about Nancy Risch and the prosecution's plan for her.
When Danny had been arrested, you know, they were searching all over the place at the time when mister Small might be held, especially this is the Mercedes was in some place. Well, they found the Mercedes and Danny heard them talking. I think they were talking out purposely. He would hear them once he knew they found the car, he knew they would find find the burial site. So that's when he started cooperating. He said, okay, I'll take you to where he is. I don't know, and you
know we'll dig them up. He could be okay, So he took the police out to the burial site. Now by this time Danny knew mister Smalls dead because he had he invaded the cops and the FBI tail who got in the motorcycle. He invaded the tail and went out to the burial site and he yelled into the pipe mister Small. He said, there's no answer, so I knew he was dead. Well, anyway, he took he took the cops out to the burial site, thinking that he can save mister s Paul's life. And you know, they
dug it up and mister Small is dead. And he acted like, oh no, I can't believe, but he already.
Knew he did.
So that was the end of any cooperation.
What does prosecution summarize in terms of initially the way they're going to prosecute.
Him, Well, they had all the evidence they needed. They had his shoes which had sand on them, they had the fingerprint on the box. He was the one who took them to the box. They had in their tight case against them, so convicting him was easy.
Nancy risis is charged with similar charges. Why does the what's the idea for prosecution? What do they believe she's actually guilty of? And tell us about how our lawyer severs the case for her benefit between her and her boyfriend.
She had a separate trial, which was should have been a good thing. In her trial which came after Danny, they used every bit of evidence they had against Danny against Nancy, which was false because all of this pointed to what Danny did, didn't point to anything within. The whole case was based on lives and conjectures and German.
For Carlo, the prosecutors went to college theatrics before he went to law school, because he said in an interview in a mague, he said he wanted to be able to put on the dramatic show in the courtroom, and he did. He told so many lines. He said that witnesses in the store said that Danny and Nancy bull squat Yellen of distilled water views in the box. Well, the water in the box was tap water. In an old milk jock and it was not even introduced as evidence.
He just said it and so many other things. He's a plastic tie that Danny bought. He bought for something he was doing at home and had nothing to do with the kidnapped. He didn't use the plantic tige and mister Small handcuffed for Carlo, said these were used in the kidnapping. The judge said, no, you can't say that, you can't introduce it. He said it anyway, and then he got a receipt from the store for the Twiss
guys that had Danny and Nancy's name on it. Well, much later in the appeal nance, the lawyer went to the store, he got the receipt and there was no name. So it was just one lie after another, he would say in the summer to the jury, he would say such and such witness testify that they saw Daniel want to buy a candy bar to the box. He look
at the transcripts. They never said that, but he said he told the jury that they was one lie after another, and he was experiencing was dramatic, and Nancy had just about the worst lawyer, which is what the Small wanted. You know, every single public defender and every single attorney in Pink County would not take her case because they were afraid of the small So the judge as signed
the worst lawyer in town. He had never tried a mind, so he got this experienced, dramatic guy against this weak attorney. And one of the jurors later said, no, if if Nancy had had for Carlo instead of the man he had, he might have gotten off.
At Danny Edwards trial, we didn't talk about this, but his trial is different than hers in that he's eligible for the death penalty. Now, what does he say in all his statements and also what was said at his own trial in terms of Nancy's rishes, guilt aiding and abetting is what the prosecution claimed helping him in his crimes.
Well, he didn't testify it at his own ground, so he didn't say anything. Yes, but did the police. He was he's trying to make all these excuses. He was saying, Mitch, he owed money to Mitchell Levit, so that's why he had to do this. He said, big, big drugs in Chicago were putting him up to it. He got some help from the black cowboys out in that part of the county, all the stuff to take some of the
deals off of himself. The police didn't believe any of what he said, but the one thing he said from the beginning, from the time they got prested was Nancy had nothing to do with it.
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off during your first month. Visit ritual dot com. Slash murder to start Ritual or as Essential for Women eighteen plus to your subscription today. Now talk about the vigorous prosecution going for a death penalty in one of the prosecutors, the guy leading the charge is a guy named for Caro, and so his depiction of Danny Edwards is that this was no accident, that he would have intended to murder,
even Small's. But he also includes in that instructions to the jury and or statements to the jury that Nancy Risch is aiding and a betting and an accomplice to all of these kidnapping and murder.
I just don't know that he mentioned Nancy much at Danny drown It was all Danny did it. He planned it, he did this. The whole thing was sound. It's a different story at Nancy strown all of a sudden, Nancy did it, Nancy planned it, Nancy made the phone call, contrary to the evidence. You know, mister small Son told the police it was a man's voice in the phone, told the FBI it was a man's voice. He testified at both trials it was a man's voice on the phone.
And now Pacara was saying Nancy made the call, and that he said that in a summary to the jury, and Nancy's lawyer was sewing up. He didn't object, which she should have. And because he didn't object, she could not use this as the point on the field.
She testifies on her own behalf at her trial. Why does this not have some credibility?
Well, Gildy, people usually don't testify in their own behalf. Nancy was not guilty, and she testified because she wanted to tell what she knew and what happened. However, she was a naive, twenty five year old young woman. If the car was a much older, experienced bulldog, and he bullied her in the stand per hour and beat her down and tried to get her to say things that didn't happen.
We mentioned earlier that the Small family was involved in radio, broadcast and newspapers and were in controlling situations with a paper called The Daily Journal, I believe gene Alice Small. What was the media coverage like from the Smalls who controlled all the media.
Well, the media attention was an intense, intense and it was almost close to being objective. But that point, I mean, they couldn't say, They couldn't say Nancy guilty until the jury said.
It's a death penalty case, he was eligible. What was the verdict from the jury. Did it take long to get that verdict?
Jury came back and I think it was eleven minutes and Danny and said Gilby defently with Nancy. It took a lot longer, but it came back Gilby. She was not eligible for the death time because she didn't actually participate in you know, she didn't participate and why would she be interned at all? But she was given life without pero.
Now, what about the appeals process and what's life like behind bars for Nancy Risch?
Well, you know, it's not pleasant, of course, but she endured. She had an appellate defender who took her case, filed motions over the years in prison, Nancy got her education at her college, educating some degrees in food service. She helped him. There's a program called Helping Pause which trained service dog. He became an expert dog grommer. She modeled prisoner. Some of the women who I talked to in prison said that she was a role model and an inspiration. So and you know she was a was ideal.
You talk about one of the appeals in two thousand and four in December, tell us about a couple of the events there, and especially about the electric chair allegation.
Well, when she was being questioned initially, one of one of the detectives was threatening, saying that she was going to get the electric chair even though she wasn't eligible for it, even though we no longer had. It was all intimidation, trying to beat her down. But they couldn't do it because she couldn't tell them anything. She didn't know any that she wasn't involved.
How did she explain her lies? Because I the prosecution used the instances where she initially lied and another story came out to make it so that he had no credibility with her story whatsoever.
Well, when she was arrested, like I said, she didn't know what was going on. They asked her for whereabouts that evening if she had seen a certain tape recorder that Danny had used to of course mister Small to make a statement, and she said no if she hadn't seen it, and lied about her whereabouts. But she was scared us, and at that point he was still covering up for Danny because she didn't know what was going on.
These are minor live if you will, that had nothing to do with the kidnapping, had nothing to do with anything. But they use this as as a point that, well, she can't be believed because she lied about them.
You talk about a parole hearing in twenty fourteen being marred by the same type of wrongful evidence that was allowed. Tell us about that, well, this is the only parole hearing she had up to that. Twenty fourteen. You remember when Danny called the house Posy as a policeman, a Small Sun answered the phone and he talked to Danny
for a few minutes. The Sun told the police there was a man's voice in the phone, told the FBI it was a man's voice in the phone, testified and Nanty tround it was a man's voice.
In the phone.
It was a man's voice in the phone that's tested by two. In twenty fourteen, he sent a vic impact statement to the COROL Board and it began quote, the first time I heard Nancy Risch's voice was on September second, nineteen eighty seven, when she called our house. It was totally, totally a lie. Was contrary to what he had testified to.
His younger brother also said a victim impact statement, saying it was Nancy who called the house, even though he didn't hear the phone call and he never heard nathy voice. This is the kind of control and this is the kind of people the small Family is.
You were the only person to be able to get an interview with Danny Edwards, and you also spoke to Nancy Risch behind bars as well. Tell us about the interaction with Danny Edwards.
First, well, he didn't want to talk to me. I had got back to the numerous times and he wouldn't even get back to me. Well, finally I got her to him and we talked. It invited me to the prison and I spent many days in prison talking to him a lot of what he wanted to talk about was the Bible, because for twenty some years he'd been a born again Christian studies the Bible intensity he writes essays and teaches Bible studies. That's the main focus of life now. So talked a lot about that. But also
I asked him about the kidnapping. He said, ask me anything you want. I asked them all the questions that I could. He answered without hesitation. He said he was good to get off his chest. He said he would never lie because he would never swear to God's name and then tell him lie. That that's the worst thing possible.
And Nancy's involvement. You now had this person that you believed that was being as honest and being honest, and you asked him about her involvement. Well, what did he say?
He said, Nancy had nothing to do with it. He didn't know anything about it. I couldn't tell her about it because she would not go along with it. As far as her helping or in any way, he said, no, she didn't help him anyway. He said, if she had helped me, it would have gone a lot easier. Said. The only readon I put mister Small in a box is because I was acting alone, and it was the
only way I could hold. If Nancy was helping me, or anybody was helping me, we could have put him in a hotel or put him back to the apartment or something right and gun on them. But I have things to do. I had to, you know, the range to the grandsom called, and I had to do this, and that I was acting alone. If anybody who's helping me, I wouldn't had to put.
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Now you talked about the impedance the who might be the person who likely was the person that interfered with these appeals. Tell us about this judge and his actions.
Well, Judge Gordon Lustfell heard appeals or or just a motions, motions for this and that, and he denied everything. He wouldn't he wouldn't allow any. He said that anything would have to be based on new evidence that would be compelling enough to change the verdict or any reasonable jury.
We're not vote to convict.
Nancy lawyer said, we have new evidence, so we want an evidentiary hearing to preason out the evidence. Lustill wouldn't allow it. Well, how can you introduce new evidence if he won't allow an evidentiary hearing? This judge was you know, people in the courtroom would have shaken their heads every time they had a hearing because he was so biased. Nancy's lawyers, Margaret Byrne and Stephen Becker Chicago, thought this judge was so biased that they filed the petition asking
for a new judge based on BIA. Well, the petition went to the head judge and the head judge had to assign it to another judge to be heard. Well, guess what judge he picked? He picked jud lust Fell, and Judge Lustfeld decided the judge luss Feld was not fine.
Now you talk about Nancy's attorneys filing for a re sentence hearing in twenty twenty one based on what law can you explain?
Well, a law was passed in twenty sixteen that said domestic abuse must be taken into account at sentencing. Well, Nancy was sentenced in nineteen eighty eight, was not taken into account, wasn't even gota. But Nancy's lawyer said, okay, since it wasn't taken into account, we want a re sentencing based on domestic abuse. Danny abused her a lot, very many times, like I said, even put it down
to her head once. They had a number of witnesses, women who knew Nancy back in the day, who were all set to testify about all the abuse that They also had expert witnesses on domestic abuse. They had a good caste. But by that time the statement said you know what we can't witness I say, got too much. So they cut a deal saying we'll give you a new sentence which will amount to kinzer, which was thirty
four years in prison where crime keeated. They made that deal, a new judge approved it, and the beginning of twenty twenty two, Nancy finally walked down.
Incredible. You talk about near the end of the book, and it's interesting where Danny Edwards might have gotten this hair brained idea from in the first place. And you talk about the Barbara Jane Mackie's story, which made national headlines, was made into a couple television made for television movies. It was a big thing, and was a person involved named Stephen christ and some of the particulars in this
echo and mirror what happened in this particular case. In this particular case involving Stephen.
Small Yes, he was kidnapped and buried alive and helped her as in nineteen sixty eight, they made a TV movie out of this that she survived because the kidnapper built the box away. It should have been with air coming in and going out, which Steven Smallfox did not have.
They made this into a TV movie in nineteen seventy two, and one of Danny's friends told me that in nineteen seventy two he and Danny were in the basement watching this TV movie and a very similar circumstances, and Danny said, you know what, I think somebody could get away with that.
Yes, some of the particulars in this fictional story really were very, very similar and seemed to be much beyond a coincidence that he did not see this television movie.
Yeah, but it wasn't fictional that actually happened Barbaria g Mac. But they were both watching this movie and Danny was just sort of trying stick by you. Nobody could get away with doing that.
You've called this book small Justice, and I know it's play on words, but tell us why you chose that title.
Now, justice is of course named because of the small family. But in Kankakee, if you are wealthy and connected in the big shot, you can get away with if you're just an ordinary citizen with no connections, no money, and no influence like Nancy or they will.
Nai only you know.
It's a small justice with a small guests and small justice with the campus. That's kind of justice to give.
Right And tell us about your book about governors, small lend, small governors and gangsters. Tell us about this book.
Lent small with elected governor in nineteen twenty. He before he was governor of Illinois, he was the state treasurer of Illinois. He embezzled about two million dollars, you know, nineteen sixteen, nineteen seventeen, which is you know, I can't
even tell you how much money that is today. He did it by you know, treasurer is supposed to invest the state funds over about three or four hundred banks because back then they didn't have FBI instruments, so you have to spread the money out and keep the bank failed. He invested half of the state money one bank, and it was a bank that did not exist. He loaned that money out to the Chicago meat factors at six to eight percent interest, and he paid eighty two to
three percent. So he got away with about two million dollars in a couple of years. Well, as soon as he became governor, a new state charger took over and saw this on the books. So Small was indicted and just a few months after being sworn in as governor, he went on trial. Because the lawyers had a defense saying the divine right of kings, the king can do it over that's why Governor Small brought the law. Well, the judge didn't buy that, so he went on trial.
The state put on prosecuting lasted nine moots. They had every scrap of paper they had. They had him nailed. When it came tack to the defense, Small lawyers said, we're not going to put on it. Judge was shocked. Well, Jerry came back not young. Well, it turns out the jury was a bribe by men sent by al Capone, who was a good friend of Governor's. Governor Small sold all kinds of pardons and paroles to a small to a componed men and any anybody else a good paper.
I mean, I'll give you one axample. Harry Guzick rand houses prostituting, forcing young innocent women to prostituting. One woman escaped, and Guzik was arrested and went on trial. He was convicted and sentenced to the penitential. He didn't spend one day in jail. Governor's Small pardon him immediate. The next day he was back on the pratichuting business.
And you talk about how small family was sacrificed in some way by the political aspirations of Governor George Ryan.
He commuted all one hundred and sixty seven death sentences in Illinois to life in prison, and one of those lives to save was Danny Edward. The Small Family never forget.
And what of Nancy Rish after thirty four years update?
He is now living on her own. She's working a job. She's trying to get adjusted, and I had asked her about being on a podcast. She doesn't want any to deal with the keep, wants to forget the whole thing ever happened, and she's adjusted quite well. She's always been a religious person and a positive person.
Yeah, fascinating. I want to thank you very much Jim Writings for coming on and talking about your extraordinary book, Small Justice. For those that might want to take further. Look. Do you have a website or do you do any social media?
I do Jim Writings dot com, j I M R I d I n g F dot com.
Thank you so much, Jim Writings for coming on and talking about Small Justice. You have a great evening, and thank you and good night.
Thank you so much.
Jan thank you,