0:01

Murder in Miami is a production of

0:04

I Heart Radio. Here's

0:07

some additional interviews that provides

0:09

some interesting context into the violent

0:11

and bizarre world of early eighties

0:14

Miami with some surprising

0:16

overlap. Starting with a story from

0:18

retired Miami Dade detective Jeff

0:20

Lewis. And

0:23

you said, when you finally

0:25

got into that house, they had two

0:27

cougars in the back in

0:30

the backyard. They had to live cougars.

0:33

It's good a hell out of us. We didn't know what to do with them.

0:36

A couple of days later, we

0:39

learned the cougars

0:41

had escaped the backyard of that residence

0:44

and the police had to be called. I guess

0:46

they were legal to have. I'm not really sure

0:48

how that worked out, but they did end

0:50

up escaping and got caught. But yes, they were live cougars.

0:53

It was the whole case. I could write a book about

0:55

that case, a long speechless

0:58

I mean, you here, watchdog,

1:00

but to think of two live

1:04

cougars patrolling

1:06

the backyard, that's horrifying.

1:10

Well, and then and the detectives that went, you

1:12

know, because you surround the house before you enter it,

1:14

and that's you know, they were They went back there

1:16

and they were. It was funny because

1:18

the one of the detectives got

1:20

you know, we got onto the radio to advise and listen,

1:23

I'm advising everyone that we

1:25

have our cougar in the backyard. And

1:27

the dispatcher heard that

1:29

and she got on the radio she says,

1:32

KSK with the VEN number. She

1:34

thought he was saw about a car, a cougar car

1:37

and was going to get the VEN number to run it since

1:39

it was stolen. And then we had to clarify, I know it's a cougar,

1:42

a cat, the lion, and

1:46

that cougar tail actually ties

1:48

in with a childhood story from current Miami

1:50

Dade Police cold case detective

1:53

David Denmark. And

1:56

I can attest to that because I would believe I

1:58

was in middle cool and

2:02

uh during those days, you

2:05

had to pick up your report card, um

2:07

when it was the end of the year before summer started.

2:09

You actually had to appear and signed for it

2:12

and accept it. And when

2:14

we were growing up, when I say we as

2:16

friends of mine, we would UH a bicycle

2:19

to school and we would

2:21

notice the area changing and actually

2:24

we called a cocaine alley which was

2:26

between as Off Avenue

2:29

and southwest to sixth Street

2:31

and Bird Road which is four two street. So

2:34

that area grew really quickly

2:36

with huge homes, gated

2:38

windows, and driveways

2:40

that we never saw in our neighborhoods,

2:43

which was only a quarter mile away.

2:45

So it was just something different and really

2:48

affected us as kids because we weren't afraid to

2:50

drive through there. It was kind of entertaining

2:52

because one of those houses had

2:55

to pumas uh in front

2:57

and cages and we were just in

2:59

all about that. So, you know, we didn't

3:01

have a problem driving

3:03

it down those neighborhoods, but we definitely saw

3:06

a change, a huge change to go up rather quickly.

3:09

We figured it was all you know, that's whar we call it Cocaine

3:12

Alley because we figured it was drug money that was purchasing

3:14

and building those homes. I was gonna

3:16

say, I've mentioned this to you, but Jeff

3:18

told me a story about

3:21

responding to a house

3:23

that had to Puma's house.

3:30

Yeah, absolutely, especially if it was in that area.

3:32

Um that wasn't known for

3:34

a lot of the narcotics investigations

3:37

and stuff was that whole area

3:39

there. But

3:42

another little story is during

3:44

time that we went to go pick up our

3:46

report cards, uh, the

3:49

Everglades started right around

3:52

Avenue and went west and

3:54

our church, our local church, was

3:56

on the corner of Bird Road and hun Seventh

3:59

Avenue, and they a lot that

4:02

was next to the church and there would always be cars

4:04

parked there and they always had for sale signs

4:07

on them. And the day we would

4:09

pick up our report cards, we drove by there on

4:11

our bicycles and we smelt something

4:13

awful um. You know, we know what road

4:15

kill snows like, but this was bigger than that because

4:17

it engulfed the entire area.

4:20

And we started looking around the car, just being the

4:22

nosy, and we came across

4:24

one where there was something dripping

4:27

out of the trunk, which ended up

4:29

being maggots um. And there was

4:31

a huge, very large, stained

4:33

brownish reddish stain underneath

4:35

the trunk of that car, so we knew something

4:38

was was in that trunk. Well

4:40

we uh. We flagged down a local police

4:43

officer Miami Dade, and he

4:45

stopped clear us out and told

4:47

us to step back and roped off the scene and

4:50

homicide responded. You know the guys when

4:52

the cool looking glasses and the dress

4:54

pants and the dress dudes showed up and

4:57

they popped that trunk and indeed

4:59

there was a body located that was bound and

5:01

gagged. So that's

5:03

you know, that's brings it at home to me

5:06

again. I was born and raised here in Miami.

5:09

So when we saw that and

5:11

figured, you know, everything was going down and that

5:13

was all during the eighties, we knew times were changing.

5:25

For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit

5:28

the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

5:31

or wherever you get the stories that matter

5:33

to you.