0:00

Murder in Miami is a production of

0:02

iHeartRadio previously

0:06

on Murder in Miami. On

0:08

June twentieth of nineteen eighty five, drug

0:11

smuggler Lamar Chester was killed in

0:13

a plane crash on his property in

0:15

rural northern Georgia. Lamar

0:17

Chester died in a very strange plane

0:20

crash when you look back at it, a

0:22

nonsensical really that they could have come to

0:24

any sort of conclusions about the cause

0:26

of the crash in less

0:29

than twenty four hours. At the time,

0:31

the initial explanation for the crash

0:33

was that the plane had run out of fuel.

0:36

One of their agents, Frank

0:39

Baker Jr. Was on the scene

0:41

almost immediately. He had to be there when

0:44

the plane went down. Among

0:46

those who considered it more than

0:48

just suspicious was Lamar's

0:50

best friend, Ron Elliott, who was at

0:52

the ranch at the Chicken

0:55

Farm in North Georgia the night before the crash.

0:58

Why wouldn't you have a coroner's quest,

1:00

particularly given the circumstances. They

1:03

wanted to just see the body, and

1:06

when they opened the gasket,

1:09

the body had already been cremated.

1:13

So what happened to the plane?

1:16

The wreckage? The

1:18

plane was gone and all

1:20

that was left was an oil spot on the floor.

1:32

Hello, Lauren, So I

1:34

have an update. Detective

1:36

Denmark was able to track down Clay Williams

1:39

medical records and he actually has

1:41

the file. No kidding. What

1:43

did you find out? Well, a lot

1:45

more than expected. Turns

1:48

out that we're not the only ones

1:51

who were interested in tracking down that file.

1:54

Now that is interesting. Multiple

1:58

government agencies filled multiple

2:01

ones. I'm

2:07

Lauren Bright Pacheco and this is the

2:09

final episode of Murder in Miami.

2:23

Six months after I'd submitted a formal

2:25

request for information regarding the murder

2:27

of Clay Williams Miami Dade coal

2:29

case, Detective David Denmark reached out

2:32

with news he'd located the medical

2:34

report. We always hope

2:36

that we're going to find something in it

2:38

to be complete, but we understand

2:41

when it's not. Because of the workload that's

2:43

put on each case. We

2:46

want to find everything, but if we can't,

2:48

we'll take any little piece

2:51

of that case because then we can explore

2:53

a different avenue of that information we

2:55

have, and the medical examiner is one of those

2:57

sources. But we always hope to find the entire

2:59

five and everything that was put

3:01

in there in this case. Apparently

3:04

we got lucky. Okay, Now,

3:06

once you got your hands on Clay

3:09

Williams medical records, what immediately

3:12

popped out as useful for you pictures.

3:16

Pictures is huge. I would tell you it's

3:18

in my opinion, but I think a lot of other

3:20

investigators want to

3:22

see what's going on. And

3:24

you could study a picture

3:26

of pictures a hundred times,

3:29

and every time you receive information outside

3:32

of those pictures, either from a file, a

3:35

piece of paper, a witness, anything

3:38

that regards that case, that picture changes

3:40

for you. Where you were not looking for something

3:42

in the background, information by

3:44

reviewing the file may point your

3:47

eyes in that direction, and now you have a

3:49

picture that contains a very important piece

3:51

of evidence. And so what

3:53

kind of pictures were

3:55

included in Clay's file? Those

3:58

were that of the landscape,

4:00

which was a flooded area beyond

4:03

southwest two hundred and seventeenth Avenue,

4:06

which is way out west Everglades. Basically,

4:09

it gives the waterways and then

4:11

it gives the horrifying look of a

4:14

torsto that has been mutilated

4:16

by alligators and affected

4:19

by the stunt and being decomposed.

4:23

So those pictures bring all that light.

4:26

Pictures that were likely the same

4:28

one shown to fill Stamford in nineteen

4:30

eighty one. And again it when

4:32

you read it into someone's investigative

4:35

rite up, it's different when you're

4:37

reading it and looking at the picture that they're describing.

4:39

Because words can't describe what we

4:42

see and how bodies are mutilated

4:44

and decomposed. The

4:46

detective does their best to point

4:48

out injuries and possible injuries.

4:51

In this case, the key thing is

4:54

which brings the medical examiner on board

4:56

is that the detective will point to puncture wounds

4:59

in the s all of this person,

5:02

and we think as investigators

5:05

gets a gunshot wounds and maybe the person

5:07

was shot in the head. But the medical examiner

5:10

being the people, they are saying, no, this was

5:12

actually puncture wounds from an

5:14

alligator too. That helps out a

5:16

lot because now we know he wasn't shot in the head.

5:19

Those were alligator markings of

5:21

the alligator biting his head. The

5:24

file also contained a small clipping

5:26

from the Sunday, October fourth edition of

5:28

the Miami Herald under the headline

5:31

body found and flooded glades maybe

5:33

missing. Private detective quote

5:36

a mutilated, decomposed body discovered

5:39

by Florida National guardsmen in a

5:41

flooded East Everglades area.

5:43

Maybe the remains of a missing private

5:45

detective, police said Saturday. There's

5:48

no way to recognize him, said Metro

5:51

homicide detective John Parmenter. The

5:53

body was mutilated by alligators

5:55

and probably run over by trucks. The

6:00

article goes on to mention that the nude body

6:02

was found floating in two to three feet

6:04

of water by guardsmen while providing

6:06

flood relief aid to residents. Initially,

6:09

they believed the body to be an animal carcass,

6:12

but upon closer inspection realized

6:14

it was human. Quote. I

6:16

think he was killed and dumped, said

6:18

Parmenter, though we may

6:20

never, because of the body's condition,

6:23

be able to prove how he was killed.

6:27

The article also mentions the remains were

6:29

believed to be those of a white man six

6:31

foot or taller, but that dental records

6:34

would be utilized to identify the victim and

6:36

the possibility that it could be a missing

6:39

private detective. It concludes

6:41

with the sentence that quote police would

6:43

not release the name of the private detective

6:46

nute, but it would seem that by

6:48

nineteen eighty three, many others were

6:50

aware of Clay William's name. By

6:53

reviewing the medical examined report,

6:55

we found out that there's at least four or five

6:57

different agencies that were involved, to include

7:00

at the Lee, US Customs, i Ars,

7:02

marshals, and of course Miami

7:05

date or Metro date back then, which

7:08

will always raise an eyebrow

7:10

on the detective part, actually everybody's

7:13

part, because they start understanding the

7:15

amount of people and different agencies

7:17

that are involved. The medical exambler

7:19

or someone that was in control of that file

7:21

would document as notes came in and

7:24

agencies were calling in and

7:26

saying, hey, you know what happened? Who is

7:28

it? Is? It probably identified? This

7:31

is something that definitely again raised

7:33

another eyebrow that who's inquiring,

7:36

why are they inquiring, and what

7:38

kind of information do they want? Something

7:42

was special about this case. You know, someone

7:44

gets killed on the side of the road, You're

7:46

not going to have so many agencies looking into

7:48

it unless they were involved in something deeper

7:51

that we don't know about. Here's

7:53

Bill Stanford. I think that it's

7:55

because Leslie

7:57

was talking to the grand jury about

8:00

it and it looked like

8:02

Clay's death might be connected to Lamar

8:06

and these agencies. I had

8:08

no idea there are so many of them wanted

8:10

to get in on it see what was

8:12

there. Yeah, David

8:14

Denmark said that as a detective,

8:17

that raises a lot of eyebrows and suddenly

8:19

this is much more valuable and interesting

8:22

than anybody thought. I'm

8:24

going to turn over everything

8:26

that I've accumulated during the

8:28

research of all of this to the

8:31

Miami Dade Cold Case Division. I

8:34

think that they will utilize

8:36

it. They might be able to close out

8:39

the Clay Williams case based

8:41

on what we've uncovered,

8:44

which would be closure to his family because

8:47

even if Chester wasn't

8:50

personally responsible

8:52

for the murder, he was aware that it had

8:55

happened, and looks like he was aware

8:57

that had happened before the body was even found.

9:00

Yeah, that's certainly a possibility.

9:03

A lot of that depends on Leslie's

9:06

recollection of the dates, and that's

9:08

going to be hard for them to pin down.

9:10

But I know the family would like to know

9:13

what happened to Clay.

9:17

But if Leslie's recollection

9:19

is accurate, it would support the

9:21

likelihood Chester and Bob Adams

9:23

were aware of the murder of Clay Williams

9:26

before his body was even found, which

9:28

adds additional weight to Phil's initial

9:30

interactions with Bob at intercept.

9:33

Having an investigative reporter call and

9:35

then show up in person asking

9:37

for a man they might have just gotten rid

9:39

of days after his murder

9:42

would likely have been rather unnerving,

9:45

and given Phil's Washington

9:47

slash political resume, possibly

9:49

played into their mistaken belief Phil was

9:52

actually with the CIA, speaking

9:54

of which, the number of agencies

9:57

interested in the autopsy of Clay Williams

9:59

rive the number of agencies lamar

10:01

Chester claimed in the press to have

10:04

worked with, including the CIA,

10:06

the DA, US Air Force

10:08

Intelligence, US Naval Intelligence,

10:11

and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

10:14

I did make a request through the Freedom of Information

10:16

Act slash Privacy Act inquiring

10:19

as to any files involving

10:21

lamar Chester or Clay Williams.

10:24

The DA determination letter I received

10:26

back States regarding

10:28

your request for records on Bain's,

10:30

Clayton Williams, and Tilton lamar

10:32

Chester Junior, please be advised

10:34

that we have decided to neither confirm nor

10:37

deny the existence of such records,

10:39

pursuant to various exemptions

10:41

that they go on to list and stating

10:44

that quote this is our standard

10:46

response to such requests and should

10:48

not be taken to mean the records

10:51

do or do not exist. Unquote.

10:54

In light of the number of agencies interested

10:56

in the autopsy of Clay Williams, and agencies

10:59

Chester had spoken on record about

11:01

being involved with, it's interesting

11:03

to revisit the observation made by Clay's

11:06

friend Ted about the computers at

11:08

Intercept. He

11:10

introduced me to Bob Adams

11:12

and another fellow

11:14

there, and I had understood

11:17

from Clay that these

11:19

were former intelligence people

11:21

from the federal government, well the CIA,

11:24

Army intelligence, and they had

11:27

what I thought was awfully large

11:29

computer setup. I just was

11:31

impressed that such a small office

11:33

would have such an enormous

11:35

setup for computers. I

11:37

don't know what these guys accessed, but

11:41

the prosecutors an operation Loan Star,

11:43

had a definite theory Intercepts

11:45

computers would pop up in the transcripts

11:47

and connection with the allegation that Chester might

11:50

attempt to obstruct their investigation,

11:52

stating that quote, mister Chester

11:55

and mister Adams had discussed the purchase

11:57

of a computer that would be used to tap

11:59

into the various federal law enforcement

12:01

agencies, and

12:03

that such an advanced computer was apparently

12:06

purchased for fifty thousand dollars

12:09

does the name Intercept strike

12:11

you, particularly since they

12:13

all had such a sardonic sense

12:15

of humor. Do you think that that was

12:18

just a random

12:20

name that they chose, or do you think there may have been

12:22

more behind the name Intercept

12:24

now looking back, Oh, I

12:27

think that they tried to

12:30

pick a name that made them sound competent

12:33

and somewhat mysterious. I don't

12:35

see too much behind it. There may be, but

12:37

I don't know if there is. I did think it

12:39

was interesting, though, that the prosecution

12:43

at one point claimed that Chester

12:46

and Adams were trying to

12:48

break into other agencies

12:50

computers to interfere

12:52

with the investigation. Oh, I'm

12:55

sure they were. I don't doubt that Bob was up

12:57

trying to do everything like he could find

13:00

out about the investigation. That's that's

13:02

Bob. Technology

13:14

and our understanding of its capabilities has obviously

13:16

evolved, and Happy Miles

13:18

says, so has our views on drugs,

13:21

especially cocaine, which

13:24

is why he views his coconut grove smuggling

13:27

days as a bit more innocent than

13:29

they may seem today. Back

13:31

in the cheveniese and mid Chevenie,

13:34

cocaine was she in a different

13:36

light. Cocaine wasn't

13:38

the addictive drug that we found

13:41

it out to me, it was

13:43

a high end drug per

13:46

high end earners. The

13:48

people that we're using it were doctors,

13:51

lawyers, businessman, Wall

13:53

Street people. It

13:55

wasn't looked like it is

13:58

now. The laws we're

14:00

different to back then as far

14:02

as punishment, when in

14:04

the beginning it was a

14:06

different deal and it

14:08

was fifty thousand dollars a key,

14:11

then now it's fourteen

14:13

thousand dollars a key. So

14:17

you know, supply and demand. The supply

14:19

is so great thanks to the

14:21

government and their effort

14:24

on drugs. And all

14:26

you have to do is look how cricket our

14:28

government's gotten from where

14:30

it was done.

14:32

It was small agents and

14:35

da and everything that

14:37

we're maybe trying to make an

14:39

extra bucket. What have you allowed

14:42

to go on which

14:45

it has been corruption,

14:48

corrupts, It goes to

14:50

unbelievable levels until

14:52

it corrupts absolute. We're

14:56

almost at a point of no return,

14:59

we really are. You

15:01

thought at one point there was a way to shut

15:03

it down. Do you think there's any way to shut it down

15:05

anymore? Oh Man,

15:07

letter, Herculea and cash. It

15:09

would be During

15:12

the production of this podcast, I was able

15:14

to reconnect Happy with CB Hackworth,

15:16

whose paths had not crossed since their

15:19

initial meeting at the Ritz Carlton, and

15:22

I'm happy to report that the two may

15:24

collaborate on assembling a collection of

15:26

Happy's adventures during his Adventurers

15:28

Club and cartel days.

15:31

You're a good writer, I love. I

15:33

read all the articles in her rogue

15:36

back when, and I was impressed

15:39

with them. So yeah,

15:42

I'm impressed by what I know of your adventures,

15:44

and I'm looking forward to hearing more. I'm

15:46

actually ready to come out there. So I've

15:49

got two fits that will write go forward

15:52

to this thing too. Some

15:56

of those stories will undoubtedly involve Happy's

15:58

young protege of sorts, Jack

16:00

Devo. If you'll remember, Devot

16:02

is now in witness protection but

16:05

ended up testifying against Noriega

16:08

yep, testified

16:10

before Congress with a hood on

16:12

his face, Wow

16:14

with a black Goodover's head.

16:17

In addition to Clay's murder and Chester's

16:20

questionable crash, one of the enduring

16:22

mysteries in this twisting tale is

16:25

the identity of the informant who

16:27

turned on Jack Devot. Our

16:29

greatest sale ever Newmark and Lewis's

16:32

presidential reta we believe this

16:34

ring is the largest cocaine trafficking ring

16:36

ever organized, said Robert Dempsey,

16:38

Commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

16:41

The ring was responsible for flying fifteen

16:43

thousand, eight hundred and thirty seven pounds of high

16:45

grade cocaine with a street value of two

16:47

point two billion dollars into the United

16:50

States between June nineteen eighty two

16:52

and November nineteen eighty three. Happy

16:56

Miles has long taken great

16:58

offense at any innuit that

17:00

he rolled on de Vot. You

17:03

gotta remember Jack and I were really good

17:05

friends. Jack didn't know

17:07

who flipped on him and even asked

17:09

if you'd done it. Oh yeah,

17:12

Well, of course everybody thinks

17:15

because of the DL I ended

17:17

up with it, I'm the guy that rolled

17:20

on everybody, which isn't true.

17:24

During my research for this podcast, another

17:26

former smuggler linked to the Coconut Grove

17:29

Guys who wishes to remain unnamed,

17:32

sent me two extremely detailed

17:34

Florida Department of Law Enforcement logs

17:36

from nineteen eighty three, detailing

17:38

twelve cocaine trips from departure,

17:41

the cocaine's origin Columbia, sight

17:43

of the offload, and point of entry

17:45

into the US. The level

17:47

of detail was so specific that when

17:50

I ran them past Happy, he assumed

17:52

they must have come from de Vaux himself

17:55

because they contained information only

17:57

someone with access to Ocean

17:59

Reef, the US point of entry for half

18:01

of the trips, would have You

18:04

were also saying when we

18:06

spoke about the spreadsheet

18:09

I sent you about the charges of the

18:11

different runs.

18:13

That had to be from

18:16

a debrief of Jack

18:18

Devo. I'm sure because

18:21

nobody would have had all

18:23

that information. It

18:25

was just two de kailled Ah,

18:28

so you attribute all the information on

18:30

that to Jack, I would say so,

18:33

yeah, yeah, because they certainly

18:35

had everybody's names and all

18:37

the details, and they had

18:39

the amount of the load were and

18:42

so it could be because

18:44

Chester shows up on that list, but that's

18:46

from nineteen eighty three, so

18:49

he was already being

18:51

investigated before that. Yeah.

18:54

Chester's name only appears once linked

18:56

with Little Darby. But my anonymous

18:59

source added that quote. All of the

19:01

one stating Rutter cut Key were

19:03

transported to the US via Derby

19:05

Island, accounting for

19:07

another five trips six in total,

19:10

half of the twelve. My source

19:12

also mentioned Jack TiVo was trying

19:14

to purchase the larger Derby

19:17

Island from Chester. That

19:19

would resonate more deeply a bit later

19:21

when I read Devot's mention of it in his testimony

19:24

before the inquiry in the Bahamas on June

19:27

twenty third of nineteen eighty four, Lamar

19:32

asked me he seemed to know about the trips. Would

19:35

I like to buy Big Derby Island. Devot

19:38

goes on to state that they settled on a purchase

19:40

price of two million dollars and

19:42

his down payment made to Chester.

19:45

I bought the island. I gave him a half a million

19:47

dollars. I gave him several planes

19:50

after that, and more money and a couple of

19:52

keys a cooke, almost a million dollars

19:54

over a period of time. It was not all

19:56

done in a day. It started off with a

19:58

half a million. Devout adds

20:01

there was no paperwork. It was

20:03

a handshake, something he was comfortable

20:05

with because we had known each other

20:07

a long time and that we trusted

20:10

each other. Apparently

20:12

Devout was busted after that payment,

20:15

but before the sale occurred,

20:18

and the logs were actually used

20:20

as evidence to indict Devout,

20:23

all of which makes the tape you're about to hear

20:25

even more telling. Here's Lamar

20:28

Chester, proving his participation

20:30

with the Feds to CB Hackworth

20:37

in particular, starting descended

20:39

who were working with Jackie Bocus on

20:41

darking. These same agents

20:44

were living on dark I

20:46

mean physically living near total every

20:49

day for three weeks now. It was glad,

20:51

I'm back and forth Miami. I think

20:53

the first too of Nassa notte

20:55

him down, get him shut up. There

20:57

was a lot of things that preceded that we're

20:59

all guns where they produced

21:01

grugs, alcobots or any other guns that

21:04

many have done after their own protection and

21:06

in broad inst guns from mass All that had to

21:08

come from the embassy because it didn't come through that

21:11

custom that Chester

21:13

mentions he was working on the Jack Devot

21:15

case. Who are working the Jack focus makes

21:18

Chester's acceptance of that million

21:20

dollars down payment from de Vaux seemed

21:22

calculated, especially since

21:25

the man he took it from ended up

21:27

incarcerated before testifying against

21:29

people like Noriega and apparently

21:31

is now in the witness protection plan.

21:34

It also lends more weight to the comment on

21:36

the Georgia Pura of Investigations crash

21:38

report that mentions Chester was quote

21:41

rumored to be cooperating with authorities.

21:44

Here's Chester, in his own words, speaking

21:47

to CB Hackworth about assisting

21:49

a task force. Here

21:53

tasport pasement. Yeah, a

21:55

drug enforcement where they are signed a pass from

21:58

the follow or sign past for And

22:00

that's where I had been meeting them,

22:02

meeting with them at task force headquarters

22:05

and walking across the street to a drug enforcement

22:07

airport. Passports got out

22:09

commercial office building out in doctor

22:11

Miami International Airport and

22:14

right next to it is a new drug enforcement dumb

22:17

and task force head like a huge ready

22:19

room math you know the huge ball

22:21

charts radios, you

22:23

know, all set up and rosters,

22:26

games desk in the

22:28

main room, and then private offices. But

22:30

these guys each had a private office

22:33

each other tests the caliber

22:37

the guys of them. Here's

22:40

the response of mister Happy Miles

22:42

to that audio, litter

22:45

at litter

22:47

at jack. If you're lifted

22:50

to this number

22:52

one, you got a hold of number

22:54

two. If you want to know who the hell routed

22:57

you out, its Lamar.

23:00

That's unreal. That's just totally

23:03

unreal. How he's bragging about flying

23:06

him back and forth and bringing them

23:08

guns, and you know

23:11

they needed guns on Derby, Like

23:14

I need a hole in my head going

23:17

after Jack, and then and

23:19

then to take a million dollars

23:21

from the guy to sell

23:23

them Derby when

23:26

he knew he wasn't gonna sell

23:28

it to him anyway, that

23:31

he'd be going away for a long time,

23:33

or let he cut a

23:36

deal after doing eight and a half

23:38

years and every rattle

23:41

hell hole around the

23:43

country testifying against

23:45

two hundred and forty guys to

23:47

get his freedom. Unbelievable,

23:52

just unbelievable. The

23:55

revelation also contradicted a sort

23:57

of smuggler's code that Happy

23:59

maintained and set the Coconut Grove guys apart.

24:02

We were in a different league

24:05

and maybe that fed into the Icarus

24:07

complex of flying too close to the sun.

24:10

What was the mistake that Chester

24:13

made well, not having

24:15

any moral compass,

24:18

not having any loyalty

24:20

to everybody he was working

24:23

with. It just shows who

24:25

he was, and you can't

24:27

live that way. Everybody

24:30

should have in morals and integrity.

24:33

Here's Phil Stanford's reaction now

24:37

that it appears that Chester actually

24:39

flipped on Jack Devo. Does that

24:42

open up more questions

24:45

than answers in terms of who

24:48

possibly could have wanted him dead?

24:52

The list keeps expanding. He doesn't

24:54

it I don't think that

24:56

de Vot should be added to the list. But

25:00

know you've got, of course the

25:02

obvious, the CIA. But then, as

25:04

Trento writes in his book, there was

25:06

a CIA

25:09

outside the CIA, and I think that's

25:12

actually where Lamar and Elliott

25:14

came in. The same guys who were running the drugs

25:17

and guns trade in Southeast Asia were transferred

25:20

to Central America. In fact,

25:22

Ron Elliott had contact with

25:24

them in the Mideast, so

25:27

they're part of the list. Then you have the mob.

25:30

Chester had borrowed lots of money from the Mob

25:33

to buy his airplanes, and if he

25:35

was going on trial for basically his life,

25:37

had like three hundred years worth of prison

25:40

time he could be sentenced

25:42

to no telling what he might

25:44

talk about if he got there. So you have

25:46

that, You have the

25:49

law enforcement officials in White County

25:51

who didn't get along with him. One was in

25:53

fact on the scene of the crash

25:56

as the plane was going down. It

25:59

might have done on their own, They might have done

26:01

it at the behest of one

26:03

or another agency. And

26:06

the cartels and the cartels of

26:08

course, yeah, who would have had

26:10

the wherewithal to buy

26:12

whatever help they needed. So far

26:17

from answering questions. I think the list

26:19

keeps expanding. Well.

26:22

It's also true though, knowing that

26:24

he set up Da

26:26

Vot and tried to sell

26:28

him an island and took a down payment

26:30

for it before Devot went

26:32

away for the rest of his life,

26:35

that would have made a lot of people nervous

26:38

because he was capable of flipping on anybody,

26:40

and the domino effect of that, because

26:44

de Vot had links to the cartel,

26:46

so there were a lot of people

26:49

who would have been pretty nervous as

26:51

to who he was willing

26:54

to turn on. Oh, I agree absolutely.

27:09

For Leslie Beckerton, her sense of betrayal

27:11

and loss of faith on multiple levels was

27:13

a direct result of her experience

27:15

with Lone Star and Chester, and

27:18

it set her on a very specific path.

27:20

What happened forty two years ago,

27:23

that loss of security

27:26

of who I am as

27:28

a human being. I remember I was telling you

27:30

about just being humiliated

27:32

in the Atlanta court. It's

27:34

amazing now just something like that can

27:36

just trip you down where

27:40

you become like a ghost. And that had

27:42

such a profound impact

27:44

on me, and you lose a complete sense

27:46

of yourself. You're worthless

27:49

collateral damage. You

27:51

know, you're worthless. It's a wound

27:53

and it's traumatic and it's a scar.

27:57

And so what inspired

28:00

out of that and education? Wanting

28:03

to understand how other people

28:05

think other cultures? Right, the

28:08

first graduate degree is an

28:10

international education and my

28:12

second degree, which

28:15

was at Brown in Latin

28:17

American and Caribbean histories. I

28:19

love teaching and I love working

28:22

with people, so I was able to

28:24

combine both of those and

28:27

as a result, I actually started

28:29

with educational school gardens in Cambodia

28:32

up in rural areas. The work

28:34

that I do and have been doing for

28:36

such a long time. As you know, my humanitarian

28:39

worked in war torn countries

28:41

and teaching train small

28:44

rural farmers and widows

28:46

overseas, and I install nutritional

28:49

kitchen gardens and orphanages

28:52

and schools, and I

28:54

established demonstration sites,

28:56

farming sites and all

28:58

low tech and the beauty

29:00

of it is and it just goes back to loss

29:03

of one sense of self and that

29:06

you count. And these people have

29:09

never counted, you know, They're just brushed

29:11

to the side. There's like a an

29:14

anguish

29:16

in their faces. And

29:19

it's something I'm really sensitive

29:21

too. Well. The irony

29:24

is that because I am a woman, I

29:27

can go into places that a

29:29

man can't and specifically

29:31

say Afghanistan, Ka or in

29:34

Jordan, so i can live

29:36

and work with families. And

29:39

also I'm not a

29:41

threat. I'm a woman. Right.

29:43

That allows me to understand

29:47

another culture and other people their history,

29:50

and to also establish

29:52

trust. It seems like

29:54

your path has almost

29:56

been to move into these places

29:59

where you know the drug trade

30:02

has wreaked havoc. You're

30:04

almost on the cleanup crew. Yes,

30:07

right, more ways than one. This

30:10

past summer I traveled to meet Bickerton in

30:12

person. It's

30:15

like little islands nestled. Oh

30:17

my gosh, there's a house nestled on that island

30:20

like a cab and see it. Your

30:22

destination is on the left. Now,

30:27

in her early seventies, she still strikes

30:30

a commanding presence. Hey there's

30:32

noble good

30:35

why, tall

30:38

and athletic and not prone to artifice.

30:40

As we pulled up, she was sporting jeans

30:42

and a baseball cap while hard at

30:44

work watering the botanist level garden

30:47

that frames one side of the rustic

30:49

picturesque property she shares

30:51

with her husband of four decades. Okay,

30:54

so there was nothing

30:56

here, Okay, this was all

30:59

literally rubble. Okay, there

31:01

wasn't even grass growing. So

31:03

this is all perennials okay,

31:05

and pollinators. Wow, look

31:08

at the little beat okay, oh

31:10

sleeping, you're nesting in the flowers.

31:16

Bickerton radiates a crackling sort

31:18

of energy. There's a shifting vulnerability

31:21

to her, at times almost brittle, at

31:23

other times edgy, sharp, but always

31:26

with a bit of defensiveness and self

31:28

deprecating humor. I

31:30

don't blame my mother because I was breech birth. I

31:33

came out feet kicking. My mom tied

31:35

me on a rope when I was two years of age. Where

31:37

you get your wanders? She says, I

31:39

could never keep track of you. Inside

31:43

Bickerton's home exudes an eclectic,

31:45

creative aesthetic, filled with comfortable, dog

31:48

friendly furnishings. The walls

31:50

are lined with art, both displayed

31:52

and propped along the sides awaiting display.

31:55

During our tour, she unwrapped several of them,

31:57

a series of enlarged photographs taken

31:59

in Afghanistan during Leslie's humanitarian

32:02

travels there. So they built

32:04

this a couple of the Chinese wall, this huge

32:07

wall Pom pomp, and then within

32:09

it is going to be the farm. In a couple

32:11

of buildings and this man

32:14

single handedly. They would throw

32:16

the mud up to him in the straw

32:19

and I've got photos of it, and he would build

32:21

them in rectangular shapes and he built

32:23

the entire wall. One

32:26

photo in particular stands out

32:28

of Bickerton standing in the center of a small

32:30

group of young men in a rural setting,

32:32

holding a small sandy brown puppy

32:35

in her arms. You're wearing those

32:37

beautiful futia traditional

32:40

garb with a sky

32:43

blue scarf and a

32:45

very western looking orange

32:49

zippo. It's

32:51

noteworthy not just because of the moment

32:53

it captures and the fact the men were

32:55

breaking social norms by standing in close

32:57

proximity with a woman, but use

33:00

of the calm joy Leslie radiates.

33:03

It's fine, went all over the world and

33:05

done a lot of good because I teach and I trained

33:08

farmers food and water security,

33:10

and this place just

33:13

just grabbed my heart and it's it's

33:15

sucking home for me. My

33:17

mom said, she said, you're

33:20

at peace with you. So here I are in a war country,

33:22

dun country. She said, you're in your element. You

33:25

found your way. It's

33:27

been an unlikely and unpredictable

33:29

path that's led to this point. One

33:31

intensified by the uneasiness that's

33:34

lingered in her life since Lone Star, but

33:36

further compounded and complicated by

33:38

the fact that Leslie met her

33:40

husband of four decades, Mike, during

33:43

the Lone Star grand jury. Was at

33:45

the grand jury in

33:47

Houston. There was

33:49

one other person there, nobody else who

33:51

was just me and somebody else.

33:54

And that other somebody else is a person

33:56

that I married, and he

33:58

was there to testify.

34:00

I didn't know for what I didn't

34:03

bother to ask him about the connection that

34:05

we had is that we were

34:07

both hardcore sailors.

34:09

In the waiting room, struck up a conversation.

34:12

Now a doctor, that husband was once

34:15

very much involved with Chester's

34:17

smuggling operations, which

34:19

makes one of her last memories of Lamar

34:21

Chester after she was married

34:24

and shortly before Chester's crash

34:27

that much more revealing. It

34:29

was down in Key Largo that

34:33

Lamar shows up. Mike

34:35

seems to think that it was just by

34:38

sheer luck that

34:40

Lamar happened to be on

34:42

the same road that we were on, which

34:45

is a northern part of Key Largo

34:48

that connects Homestead to

34:50

Ocean Reef. So Mike

34:53

thought, oh, just by chance

34:55

and accident that Lamar's following

34:58

us. I mean you said that bumped into

35:00

him. I'm like, knowing

35:02

now everything we know about Lamar, Lamar doesn't

35:04

do anything by accident. We

35:06

went out to dinner with him, Mike

35:09

must have invited him to stay over whatever, and

35:12

so Lamar was in the

35:14

house with us. After

35:16

Mike turned in for the night. Bickerton says

35:18

she had what would be one of the final interactions

35:21

she would ever have with Lamar Chester.

35:24

Lamar then in the house

35:26

told me that he wanted me to come back to him,

35:30

and I was like, wow, this is what you do

35:32

to your friends. How disrespectful

35:35

that was. And I

35:38

told him no, flat out. But there

35:40

was something about it was

35:42

just something about Lamar that

35:45

I almost felt sorry for him.

35:48

I think he knew something was coming. It's

35:51

weird. And then

35:53

he, you know, he got he

35:56

got murdered. As

35:59

for Chester dying in a plane crash,

36:01

shrouded in mystery, here's CB Hackworth.

36:04

That really wasn't the ending

36:06

that anybody had anybody

36:08

had expected, except

36:10

maybe Chester. Here's a snippet

36:13

from one of his calls to CB. Hey,

36:18

I'm not gonna

36:22

gimme or maybe right, We've

36:25

tried to improve the quality of the tape, but

36:28

it definitely sounds like Chester saying they're

36:30

going to kill me or make me running

36:35

right. Revisiting

36:41

his extensive recorded interviews with Chester

36:43

has given CB Hackworth new insight into

36:45

Lone Star, which he will further explore

36:48

in an upcoming book. It

36:50

worked out well for some of the targets,

36:53

and then it ultimately, you

36:55

know, didn't work out well for Lamar, except

36:58

to the extent that he did

37:01

manage to extend this

37:03

whole proceeding and turn the

37:05

tables on the government and put the government

37:08

on trial for so long that

37:11

he did live out the rest of

37:13

his life without

37:16

going to jail, without ever

37:19

doing what the government instructed

37:21

him to do or any judge instructed him to

37:23

do. He did live life on his own

37:25

terms until he died. In an

37:27

op ed letter Chester wrote published

37:29

in the Gainesville Times December fourteenth,

37:32

in nineteen eighty four, Chester wrote,

37:34

quote, the indictment against me was

37:36

not brought by the DA but is

37:38

an IRS indictment brought by the US

37:41

Department of Justice based on

37:43

what the government says is my net worth

37:45

with the importation of marijuana and

37:47

cocaine as probable sources

37:49

of income. Those issues

37:51

may very well have to be decided in court

37:54

before a jury. I am in the

37:56

fifth month of a motion to dismiss the indictment

37:59

based on the false of ication of evidence, leaks

38:01

of grand jury material by federal agents

38:03

and prosecutors, and gross governmental

38:06

misconduct. If I am successful

38:08

with that motion, I will definitely

38:10

tell my story to the public. If that

38:12

motion fails, then the story will

38:15

be told in Gainesville at trial. In

38:18

any case, the truth will finally out.

38:22

Six months after that letter, Chester

38:25

was dead. Here's Phil

38:27

Stamford. It did continue to

38:29

trouble me. It haunted me. What

38:31

happened in your world after

38:34

Chester died? Well, you know, I was back

38:36

in DC when I got the word from

38:38

Bob that Lamar died in a crash.

38:41

I did some work, investigative work to

38:43

make some money, but no luck

38:45

with congressional offices or

38:47

with newspapers. That

38:49

what I needed was a job, and finally,

38:52

finally I got one in Portland,

38:55

Oregon, which I guess was the only place

38:57

my reputation hadn't caught up with me with

39:00

The Oregonian, initially as a reporter,

39:02

but after a few months they made me

39:04

a columnist, and I

39:06

was one of two Metro columnists writing three

39:09

times a week telling stories, which is really

39:12

what I wanted to do. Was going pretty

39:14

well, and then here

39:17

came the Frankie case, the news that the head

39:19

of the corrections department had been

39:21

stabbed to death outside his office. Eventually

39:25

got crosswise with the management

39:27

of the paper because I was raising

39:29

questions I was doing because I was doing

39:31

my job, and I got

39:33

pushed out. Phil and I revisit

39:36

the killing of Michael Frankie in the Murder

39:38

and Oregon podcast. It's

39:40

compelling content, as are the

39:42

book Stamford wrote after leaving

39:44

The Oregonian. I wrote several books

39:46

about official corruption in

39:48

Portland and also in Washington, DC.

39:51

I did a book about the Watergate break

39:53

in, and after

39:56

a few years of that, I started getting interested

39:58

again in Miami.

40:02

As he struggled to make sense of his Miami

40:04

experience, Stamford decided to

40:06

start his own investigation Lamar's

40:09

claims. I'd been very skeptical

40:12

of them in the beginning, maybe because he

40:14

just hadn't done a good job of explaining to

40:17

me or to anyone else what it

40:19

was that he did with

40:22

the CIA, and it wasn't clear to

40:24

me that he even knew that he

40:26

was working for the CIA. I think he

40:28

was working for Naval intelligence at one time.

40:31

I think he was working for someone who was connected

40:33

to the CIA at one time, but he didn't

40:35

know. And so to come

40:37

to some sort of understanding about what

40:39

I got involved in, I started trying

40:42

to go back over some of this territory

40:44

and I went down to Georgia

40:48

talked to Bobby Lee Cook sitting

40:50

in his office in this Summerville, Georgia,

40:53

littletown in Georgia, and

40:56

he's sitting behind his desk, and

40:58

I say, did you think the christ

41:00

was accidentally? Says hell, no, he was

41:03

quite convinced he was murdered. And

41:05

I said, well, tell me what he did for

41:08

the CIA, and he begged

41:10

off. He said, I really don't know. You know, you'll

41:13

have to ask ed Marger, who was the other lawyer

41:15

just down the road about sixty miles, and

41:24

he told me that he

41:26

didn't think that either

41:28

Lamore or Ron

41:30

Elliott had direct contact with the CIA.

41:33

And there's a guy who'd won a Gray Maile defense

41:36

before, and he said, you want to ask

41:38

Bobby Lee Cook. It was Bobby Lee Cook who came

41:40

up with the idea of the gray mail defense. So

41:42

they sent you back and forth between the

41:44

two of them. Yeah, and said,

41:48

of course I already talked to him and he sent

41:50

me to you, So it didn't

41:52

really answer any questions. And

41:54

of course nothing I found

41:56

out reduced in any

41:59

way that my fee said Lamar had been murdered,

42:02

that his plane was sabotized, a

42:04

feeling that would be reinforced by information

42:07

he'd later learn back in DC. Made

42:10

some phone calls, got in touch with guy

42:12

named Ferris Bond, who had been

42:14

with the US Justice Department at

42:16

the time and on a team working

42:19

on Lamar's prosecution.

42:21

He told me about the time before the

42:23

trial. Of course they

42:25

were more than just aware of Lamar's

42:28

gray mail defense. They had arranged for someone

42:30

from the CIA to come speak to them

42:33

and tell them what was going on. And so he

42:35

said, some guy came. They

42:37

said, didn't look at all like you want you'd imagine

42:39

a CI agent would be. I guess he

42:41

was sort of shortened. Spindler put

42:44

his briefcase on the desk, and before

42:46

he said anything, he

42:50

told them that if

42:52

he talked to them, they would not be able

42:55

to reveal his name, and

42:57

they said that as lawyers

43:00

they were bound to tell the other side what

43:02

they knew. I guess in discovery it

43:04

was an issue of that. And he

43:06

put everything back in his briefcase and walked

43:08

out, and that was the end of that. So

43:12

what do you make of all of this

43:14

now, I mean, that's another interesting

43:17

layer. It had been, of course, a very

43:19

intense experience for me, and I'd

43:21

never really figured out was

43:23

Lamar telling the truth when he said he

43:25

was working with the CIA or not. You know,

43:27

Even looking back at it now, after we've

43:30

done all of this, you know, it has been useful

43:33

to me to revisit it again. Well,

43:36

certainly as the eighties unfolded,

43:39

his claims became much

43:41

less far fetched. Oh

43:43

yeah, it allowed

43:45

me to see it made me see that

43:50

these things are real, especially with

43:52

the Kerry Committee and the

43:54

press. Eventually, there

43:57

really was no doubt that there

43:59

had been in a drugs

44:03

forgotten trade going on,

44:05

that it was somehow connected with the

44:07

government. Lamar was anything

44:10

but silent about it. One of the remarkable

44:12

things about this to me

44:14

is that when Lamar's plane

44:16

went down June of nineteen eighty five,

44:19

there was a story in the New York

44:21

Times about how this indicted

44:23

drug smuggler had died in plane crash,

44:26

but no mention at all of the green meal

44:28

defense that had been written about in

44:32

cbe Hacker's paper. Yeah, that's

44:34

a very strange omission. Yeah.

44:38

As I was wrapping up the research and interviews

44:40

for this podcast, I would connect

44:42

with a most unlikely and surprising

44:45

target of interest. You

44:48

will never guess in a million

44:50

years who I just got off the phone with and

44:52

who I was able to track down. Who

44:56

Morgan Cherry. You

44:58

gotta be kidding. No. And the good

45:00

news is we had a really interesting chat.

45:03

The bad news is that he is

45:06

not surprisingly unwilling to speak

45:08

with me on the record and declined

45:10

my request for an interview. I

45:13

bet he did it very elegantly too. This

45:15

is a very smooth guy. I

45:17

can neither confirm nor

45:19

deny that he was smooth.

45:25

This is the guy whose name Lamar

45:28

dropped in the Bohemian Tribunal

45:31

said it was his contact with

45:34

the CIA. Ron Elliott

45:36

told me that Morgan

45:38

Cherry was Lamar's

45:41

CIA contact. Did

45:43

you ask him specifically about his involvement

45:45

with the CIA and DA

45:48

Phil I can either confirm

45:50

nor deny that we had any

45:52

such discussion. That's

45:56

fitting. The

46:00

once conspiracy concept of covert

46:03

operations and shadow wars has

46:05

percolated closer to the surface over

46:07

the years, and continues to do

46:10

so today. My dad used

46:12

to quote the opening line from a legendary

46:14

radio detective show that ran from the nineteen

46:16

thirties to the nineteen fifties. Who

46:18

knows what evil lurks in the hearts

46:20

of men? The shadow knows.

46:23

It's something that kept popping to mind throughout

46:25

this production, But what

46:28

happens in the shadows will likely stay

46:30

there as long as it profits

46:32

and protects the people in power on

46:35

both sides. As

46:43

we wrap up this season, I

46:45

just want to thank our small

46:48

but powerful team of

46:50

Nick and Evan and Taylor

46:52

who have just brought an incredible

46:55

expertise and enthusiasm to

46:58

every single aspect of this production. And

47:01

Phil, I just want to thank you so much for

47:04

being such a wise, witty

47:08

and wonderful storyteller,

47:11

and so thank you so much for sharing

47:14

this one. It's been great working with you.

47:17

We're all so appreciative to the incredible

47:19

array of people we've encountered and interviewed

47:21

during this process. Those named

47:24

and unnamed. We also want to thank

47:26

you the listener for your time and support.

47:31

Murder Miami is a production of iHeartRadio.

47:34

Executive producers are Lauren breg Pacheco,

47:36

Taylor Chacogne, and Phil Stanford.

47:39

Written by Phil Stamford and Lauren

47:41

bred Pacheco, Audio editing

47:43

and sound designed by Nicholas Harder, Evan

47:45

Tyre and Taylor Chacogne, featuring

47:48

music by Evan Tyre, Phil Mayer,

47:50

John Murchison and Taylor Shakogne.

47:53

For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit

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the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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or wherever you get the stories that move

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you