0:01

Murder in Miami is a production of

0:04

iHeartRadio, previously

0:07

on Murder in Miami. I think

0:09

I actually found Leslie Bickerton.

0:12

She's been hiding for forty years.

0:14

That's no way, it's no way

0:16

to live, Phil. She's still

0:18

afraid for her life. I've realized

0:20

this over the years. What happened to me

0:23

forty one years ago. It has been

0:25

with me my entire life. I mean,

0:27

it's stole my life. I stole

0:30

my voice. By the time Leslie Bickerton,

0:32

who also dabbled in modeling

0:34

while living in Hawaii, crossed paths

0:36

with Lamar Chester, she was barely

0:39

thirty years old. Before I had even

0:41

heard of Lamar Chester. I

0:43

was working in the Caymans because I

0:46

have a CPA background and

0:48

an international tax background. In

0:50

addition to accepting the challenge of living

0:52

on the island and the job with him, Leslie

0:55

Bickerton would also become romantically involved

0:57

with Chester. All three of those things

1:00

would come back to haunt her. She just boom

1:02

boom boom, and then about somebody that had

1:04

been killed off. Yeah,

1:07

I was going to talk about him, I guess. And there

1:09

were contracts out on his life,

1:11

and contracts that I was also in

1:14

danger. So

1:20

in the fall of nineteen eighty one, a

1:22

frantic Leslie Bickerton is trying

1:24

to figure out how to undo the damage

1:26

done by crossing paths

1:29

with international drug smuggler

1:31

Lamar Chester. Though

1:34

she only worked with him off and on over

1:36

the course of seven months, in many

1:38

ways she's still trying to figure out

1:40

the ripple effect of that time period

1:43

changed the course of my life, and still

1:45

today it's like it

1:47

just happened yesterday. In one sense, forty

1:51

one years. It's not like

1:53

I was allowed then to go back to a

1:55

normal life those

1:58

months forever. I'll tow your

2:00

life, oh completely.

2:02

It said a course that I didn't even know. I

2:05

wasn't setting the course. Somebody else was setting

2:07

the course and I didn't even know it. Having

2:10

been told by Chester that her life

2:12

was in danger, not knowing who

2:14

was behind that threat, and isolated

2:16

on his farm in a time before

2:19

cell phones or the internet, Bickerton's

2:21

fears are left to fester. Just

2:24

sort of left me there. So

2:27

emotionally, I mean, just a wreck, scared

2:30

to death. But at the same time, so

2:32

my brain works anyway, kind of a little

2:35

bit analytically, it's like, okay, what do I need

2:37

to do? Right? Okay? One, two,

2:39

three, four, immediately coming

2:41

up with the names in my mind that I had

2:44

to take into consideration. It wasn't just

2:46

about me. It was about

2:48

those that could be at risk and

2:52

protecting everybody just

2:54

in case, because I didn't know what I was dealing with. I

2:56

mean, I knew I was dealing with something that was big,

2:59

really big, and way out of control. That's

3:01

all that I knew. It must have felt

3:04

like being unknowingly

3:06

exposed to a very

3:08

contagious, very deadly

3:11

disease. Beyond

3:13

that, horrific. That's

3:16

the impact that it had on me. And

3:19

how do you disprove that if someone

3:21

tells you, well, now you're in a lot of trouble

3:24

and someone's out to kill you, right,

3:27

and you isolate them, right, That's

3:30

one of the other parts of that. The more you isolate

3:32

a person, you keep them

3:34

right separate from everybody, You keep them separate

3:37

from their families, friends, people

3:39

who can help them, and you mourn

3:41

more psychologically, feel

3:44

like you're out there on your own. And

3:46

that would have broken you down

3:48

pretty quickly. Oh very

3:51

much, so, very

3:54

much so. I'm

3:57

Lauren bred Pacheco, and this is

3:59

murder in Miami. Feeling

4:08

trapped, Bickerton was also

4:10

terrified of confiding to anyone

4:13

she knew, fearing it could place

4:15

them in danger too. I

4:17

think sometimes you draw

4:20

deep withinside yourself, even though

4:22

you don't have the answers, you'll

4:24

figure it out, you know, a survival

4:26

mechanism. And in

4:28

that mode, Bickerton remembered

4:30

a group of Army rangers stationed

4:33

nearby she'd befriended after

4:35

coming to Georgia. I

4:38

went up to this event in Helen, Georgia,

4:40

these hot air balloons and it's

4:43

a place touristco and

4:45

that's on the big grounds

4:48

that they had there for the hot air balloons.

4:51

That's where I met them. Just stuck up a conversation.

4:53

I don't drink drink, but had a beer

4:56

with them and just kind of like clicked.

4:59

They just and they were really great.

5:01

And they were just funny, great

5:03

sense to humor, wholesome and friendly.

5:06

Yeah. Yeah, they

5:08

were also oddly suited to

5:10

understand the situation and danger.

5:13

Bickerton suddenly found herself in the

5:16

Airborne Ranger. Guys that I met were staff sergeant.

5:18

I mean, these were like the top top guys in

5:20

the training and I know. One of them

5:23

was like one of the top snipers, and they were

5:25

telling me about their adventures overseas,

5:28

what they were doing, and

5:30

that's who I immediately

5:32

thought to reach out to. That's the

5:35

only people I knew up there were

5:37

those military guys. Rangers

5:41

are the Army's elite and premier infantry

5:43

force, rigorously trained to carry

5:45

out intricate operations such as raids

5:48

and assault missions well within enemy

5:50

territory. It's a position requiring

5:53

a daunting degree of mental, physical

5:56

and moral fortitude. I

5:58

have a contract on my life. So

6:01

I did reach out to the military

6:03

guys and we kind

6:05

of figured out a game plan, a plan

6:08

that plays like a movie plot. I

6:11

would marry one because

6:13

that would then they could legitimately

6:16

bring me over to the camp so

6:18

that Lamar couldn't get near me and nobody

6:20

could get near me, that I would be physically

6:22

protected. They were concerned about

6:24

me, like being at war, you know,

6:27

all right, strategy immediately

6:29

thinking outside the box. You gotta think on your

6:31

feet what can be done right now, what can

6:33

be done next? What can be done next? And

6:36

by marrying in name

6:39

only that allowed.

6:42

So you thought the plan that

6:44

you hashed out with these

6:46

guys, was that you would make a public

6:49

show of marrying one of

6:51

them, so Lamar would be intimidated

6:53

to no longer mess with you. Exactly,

6:57

and apparently that's exactly what

7:00

Kerton did, immediately planning a

7:02

wedding, which seemed a sensical option

7:04

given her surreal situation. I

7:07

knew Lamar was not going

7:09

to miss with these guys period.

7:12

Instinctively, people like

7:14

Lamar, they just know who

7:17

not to miss with. We actually

7:19

had a ceremony as well, a

7:22

ceremony Bickerton's family attended,

7:24

fully believing to be real. From

7:27

the outside, it all looked real

7:30

or unreal, but legitimate, almost

7:32

like for the same reasons people faked their

7:34

own death. You wanted your

7:37

own family to believe it. You wanted

7:39

to really sell it so that you

7:41

could then disappear. Yes,

7:45

was it a marriage in name only? Yeah?

7:47

And it was a note within two months

7:50

or something like that. While

7:52

it may sound like a far fetched

7:54

plan, Bickerton sent me photos

7:56

of the small outdoor wedding. In them,

7:59

Leslie's wearing a somber expression

8:01

and a simple white sleeveless gown while

8:03

clutching a simple bouquet of wild flowers.

8:07

She's standing next to her groom, whose name

8:09

she doesn't want revealed, but is formally

8:11

decked out in full ranger's dress

8:14

uniform. The couple is surrounded by

8:16

other fully outfitted Airborne Rangers,

8:18

and the small group of gathered well wishers

8:20

include Leslie's family. Her

8:22

mother is standing in front of a goateed

8:25

and grinning Lamarchester, who's

8:28

sporting a sport coat, alongside his

8:30

wife Artist, who's wearing white slacks,

8:32

a pink top, and dark sunglasses,

8:35

while leaning to her left so as to get a better

8:37

view of the bride. The photo

8:39

also provides something else. My

8:42

father love photography.

8:45

He took the photos, and

8:47

my father labels everything's

8:50

meticulous. So that's how I could get

8:52

the date. It said September nineteen eighty

8:54

one, because I couldn't remember the month when

8:56

I was married to this military person.

8:59

I want to quickly point out. Leslie

9:01

says she hastily arranged the wedding

9:03

immediately after Chester told her about

9:05

a Clayton being murdered and fed to the alligators.

9:08

Williams went missing mid September,

9:11

but his body wasn't found until October

9:13

second, which gives weight to

9:15

the theory Chester knew of the murder

9:17

before the body was found, and to Bickerton's

9:20

concern for her safety at the time,

9:23

I mean, I'm just grateful

9:25

for the military guys in Georgia,

9:27

that group of guys, because I

9:30

don't know if I would have ever been able to even get

9:32

out of Georgia, but it bought me enough time.

9:35

Without them, I'd i'd probably be dead. I'm

9:38

almost sure of it. I

9:41

owe my life to them. After

9:43

the nuptials, Bickerton says she hit

9:45

out with the rangers until she could put together a plan

9:48

to flee to another location. Interestingly,

9:51

Dan Davis, the reporter slash River

9:53

Hills publicist who was on Chester's

9:55

payroll, would later be interviewed

9:57

by CB Hackworth in nineteen eighty three for

9:59

an article in the Citizen Chester series.

10:02

In that article, Davis would

10:04

offer a pretty scathing interpretation

10:07

of the wedding, characterizing the groom

10:09

as quote one of those gung

10:11

home military types who enters the service

10:13

at sixteen unquote, and

10:16

Pickerton, who was thirty one at the time as

10:18

quote Leslie who was maybe

10:21

thirty five or forty, and there's

10:23

this Rick twenty and she wanted

10:26

to get married, so they did unquote.

10:29

The same article quotes Chester reacting

10:31

to Leslie being referenced as his mistress

10:33

in public record. Quote he

10:36

balks at that description and refers

10:38

to her instead as an occasional

10:41

girl I saw unquote. Now

10:44

keep in mind that Chester was married

10:46

and that Davis was basically

10:48

his hired mouthpiece. Here's

10:51

Leslie. This whole article

10:54

basically was a smear campaign

10:56

against me. If it was nowadays

10:59

and this was happening, I take them to court like

11:01

it's nobody's business, and I would win.

11:04

And again, nobody

11:06

has ever bothered to approach

11:09

me back then or any time

11:11

to get my side of the story or exactly

11:14

what was happening during that time period.

11:17

And you had never seen this

11:19

article until I sent it to you. Correct. Correct,

11:22

So it's interesting looking

11:24

at it now and going through all of this several

11:28

comments. I'm going to make this emphasis

11:31

on age and this was somebody

11:33

that I had married that was young and naive,

11:36

and that's not true at

11:38

all. None of it that they wrote

11:40

down is true. They somehow

11:43

tried to discredit

11:46

you by claiming there was

11:48

an age difference between you and

11:51

your groom, when Chester's

11:53

the one who's twenty years older. Right, he

11:55

had children your age, oh right,

11:57

and I knew his children now looking

12:01

back at it now, and the pattern of Lamar

12:03

Chester presents himself

12:06

to the media, right, presenting

12:09

themselves in such a way that they

12:12

can't be touched. And so

12:14

how do you present you discredit the other person,

12:17

right, You create your own storyline

12:20

to raise your own

12:22

image as a so called family man,

12:25

which he wasn't. I mean, Lamar

12:28

had relationships with

12:30

other women. I know that for a fact.

12:33

So interesting that he quote

12:36

balks at the description of you

12:38

as his quote mistress and public

12:40

record, it almost sounds like it's

12:43

Chester's way of appeasing

12:45

his bruised mail ego. A

12:47

lot of it is ego. And by

12:50

dismissing who I am, then

12:53

it takes the judgment

12:56

off of him, right, which is sort

12:58

of a classic and

13:00

by men. And I thought

13:02

about this. I wasn't his mistress, I

13:04

mean, now you know, I look at it, give the definition

13:07

of a mistress. I wasn't. I wasn't

13:10

being kept right as a kept woman.

13:13

Kept sort of here's my dark humor coming

13:15

again, right, you know, Yes, I was kept

13:17

as a hostage in one since I

13:20

would never have gone to Georgia had not been

13:22

from my dog. After

13:24

the rushed and staged wedding, Bickerton

13:27

would land in Houston, which was

13:29

also the location of the Lone Star

13:31

investigation, something of which

13:33

Bickerton attests she was unaware.

13:36

It was inferred that I

13:39

went to Houston and that I

13:41

just showed up at the Federal Building, turned

13:44

myself in to the Feds of the Federal

13:46

Building and gave

13:49

lam all this information. And that

13:52

is not true. So you're

13:54

moving really fast, and it's like, where can I go

13:57

next? Try to figure out what would be my next

13:59

step, and then when I jeopardized

14:01

my own family. So I would not have gone

14:03

back up to New England. I would

14:05

not have gone back to the Cayman Islands because I wouldn't

14:08

have put anybody in jeopardy there that had

14:10

nothing to do with Lamar. So

14:12

I had some friends in Houston,

14:15

so I made a call and

14:18

stayed with friends actually initially,

14:20

but didn't want to put them in jeopardy because I didn't

14:22

know how extensive this was. I

14:25

knew it was serious, so I

14:27

rented a small apartment and

14:30

just took temporary job. Had no plans

14:32

of staying there. It was just temporary,

14:35

and then that's when I got that phone call saying

14:38

that Houston people, Feds

14:40

in Houston were going to come after me. And

14:43

so that's when

14:46

I met the people in Houston. I

14:48

think it was the grand jury first. The

14:51

only reason you went to Houston was because

14:53

you had a friend there who could get

14:55

you employment and you could live under

14:57

the radar there he and temporary.

15:00

It was where can I go immediately?

15:03

I mean, I'm just thinking on my feet, knowing

15:05

that my life was probably

15:08

in jeopardy and knowing what

15:10

Lamar was now more involved with. You

15:14

left Georgia and then

15:16

the FED show up at the military base looking

15:18

for you. Yes, yes,

15:21

and you get the heads up

15:23

that they're looking for you while you're in

15:25

Houston. So that's

15:28

then would have been getting a phone call

15:30

that Houston people

15:33

were going to come looking for me. That

15:35

also meant the CIA, because don't forget,

15:37

Lamar told me about that he was involved with the CIA.

15:41

So I didn't know it was Houston.

15:43

All I knew was the FEDS, which

15:46

could have been anybody. We're looking

15:48

for me, And that would have been

15:51

October is when they

15:54

tried to find me on the military

15:57

base and the guys were protecting

15:59

me. And

16:04

when they found her, the prosecution already

16:07

seemed to have honed in on Bickerton's

16:09

fears in terms of safety and

16:11

her other vulnerabilities too. Euston

16:15

had promised me that they were

16:17

going to get my dog, and so they

16:19

promised you that they would go

16:22

to the Derby Islands and get

16:24

your doberman. Yep, no

16:27

problem. And did they

16:29

no? Oh

16:31

no, But you had no

16:33

idea that there was an

16:36

investigation into Lamar

16:38

in Houston. No,

16:40

no, and didn't know about lancee

16:42

Eisenberg either, investigation with

16:45

smythe Smythe was the

16:47

name of the Cayman's account. I

16:50

mean, that's what Houston was after, was

16:52

smice with Lance Eisenberg and

16:54

his clients. It sounds like a

16:57

line out of Casablanca. But of

16:58

all the the states in the

17:00

country, you end up in the

17:03

one state in the one city.

17:05

Yeah,

17:08

you know, you're right, Oh New right.

17:11

So here's my dark New England humor. You

17:13

know the old cartoons Blue Winkle,

17:15

Oh my god, watch me pull a rabbit

17:18

out of my hat and the lion comes

17:20

out roaring and Blue

17:22

Winkle goes wrong, hat wrong

17:26

hat. No, I had no idea. I didn't

17:28

know anything about Houston and

17:30

their investigation. I didn't know

17:32

that Houston was looking for me.

17:46

Phil Stanford finds Leslie's explanation

17:48

of her move to Houston in keeping

17:50

with many surreal aspects we've

17:52

covered. Coincidences have

17:55

happened all through this story, my meeting

17:58

Playways in

18:00

the bar, happy, flying over the ocean,

18:02

and meeting Lamoire at several thousand

18:05

feet, So I don't have any

18:07

problem with it being a

18:09

coincidence she ended up in Houston,

18:11

as she says that the

18:14

FEDS went to her soldier

18:16

friends in Georgia said where is she? And they

18:18

said she's in Houston, and then they tracked

18:20

her down. In any case, they would

18:22

have found her anyway. She's adamant

18:25

that it was a coincidence, and either

18:27

which way it certainly wasn't beneficial

18:29

for her. She does say that

18:32

they got involved. She does

18:34

say that she took a job knowing

18:36

that he was looking for an

18:38

accountant and a mistress. It's

18:41

easy enough to falter her

18:43

judgment on that. All sorts

18:45

of people who made mistakes along

18:48

the way in this story and just about

18:50

any other story as push what I

18:52

think is interesting, though you have

18:54

this young woman, he's her

18:56

employer. Then at that point

18:59

then I fell that she was pretty

19:01

maligned in the press as

19:04

being of less moral

19:06

character because she was his mistress. When

19:08

he's the one who's married, he's the one with the wife

19:10

and kid, he's the one who's twenty years

19:12

older. And I thought it interesting that not a

19:14

single reporter, not one, ever

19:17

reached out to her. But there

19:19

was pretty widespread coverage of the nineteen

19:22

eighty three grand jury in Atlanta, sensationalized

19:25

by the fact the foundation of it was

19:27

built upon the Houston leg of Operation

19:29

Lone Star, which would be mired

19:32

in controversy and allegations of corruption

19:34

and misconduct. Here again is

19:37

phil the real corruption in

19:40

the US Attorney's office in Houston.

19:42

The investigators had been touring

19:45

the Caribbean for some time on

19:47

the government tab. A

19:49

new junior US attorney had come in

19:52

and tried to report them and

19:55

gotten crosswi. The whole office

19:57

was in turmoil. In fact, one

20:00

of the US attorneys had actually

20:02

contacted Jeff Bogar, one of

20:05

Lamar's lawyers, and offered

20:07

to tell him about the

20:10

illegal tactics that they were using

20:12

and including altering the documents

20:14

for the grand Jury offered to

20:16

sell it for a couple hundred thousand dollars. That

20:19

chaos spilled into the tone and content

20:21

of Atlantis proceedings. It

20:24

was a mess, a hot mess.

20:27

It sounds like some hot shot

20:29

prosecutors were trying to bring

20:31

in some big money on Hunter and indictments,

20:33

then fell down a rabbit hole and

20:36

found up an Alison One. That's

20:39

reporter Tracy Thompson's take. She's

20:41

now a prolific author and journalist,

20:43

but was then reporting for the Atlanta Constitution.

20:47

In addition to covering the Atlanta Grand Jury,

20:49

she had also extensively covered the charismatic

20:52

council representing Lamar Chester in

20:54

the case. Bobby Lee Cook a

20:56

man known for his flamboyant personal

20:58

style and equally fetching

21:01

eloquence. He had

21:03

a type of charisma

21:05

that very few people had. It

21:08

was an interesting thing. When he walked into

21:10

the room, everybody knew

21:12

Bobby Bley Cooke was there. He could

21:15

easily have walked out of the nineteenth

21:17

century. He parted

21:19

his hair in the middle. He had

21:22

gold spectacles that he bore on the tip

21:24

of his nose so he could look at you over

21:26

them. He had a gold

21:29

pocket watch and this very

21:31

large chain that he kept on. He

21:34

very easily could have walked out

21:36

of eighteen seventies. He

21:39

cultivated that image. He

21:41

also had a Rolls Royce

21:44

and a chauffeur. And somebody

21:47

asked him once if he was afraid that

21:49

that would be off putting to jurors, and he

21:51

said no. He said, I think they

21:53

see me with a Rolls Royce and they know I'm

21:55

a smart guy, got my money

21:58

because I'm smart, and

22:00

and trust me because of that, and

22:02

they could trust he would ruthlessly

22:05

defend his clients. People

22:07

were scared of him, and I needed

22:09

to be scared of him because he

22:11

was made. He was vicious

22:14

and cross examinations.

22:16

He who didn't want to

22:18

tell Bobby Lee Cook a story with any

22:20

hole in that because he would find

22:22

it and ruth Worth Lady's boy them.

22:25

Here's Phil Stamford's take. Yeah,

22:28

Bobby Lee Cook is certainly one

22:30

of the more formidable people I've

22:32

ever run across. Extremely smart

22:35

lawyer. Never seen anyone who could

22:38

talk on his feet like that. He lived

22:40

in this tiny town in North Georgia

22:43

that was half boarded up. When I finally

22:45

went down there and talked to him. He

22:48

had a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce, and

22:52

he looked so homespun that was part of his act.

22:54

He wore hush puppies, suspenders,

22:58

had a beard, and he

23:00

could adapt to just about anything. I mean. He represented

23:03

the Rockefellers and the Carneggies in some dispute.

23:05

He represented a lot of

23:07

the Southern mobs.

23:10

A wonderful lawyer. At one time, he

23:13

was thought to have been the model

23:15

for this TV character Matlocke,

23:17

a series about a Southern lawyer

23:19

who was also very

23:22

homespun and very effective like Bobby

23:24

Lee Cook. Tracy Thompson

23:26

is agreed to read excerpts from one of her pieces

23:28

of the time, which really paints a picture

23:30

of the courtroom dynamic. As one of the former

23:33

prosecutors from Lone Star's Houston leg

23:35

John Johnson, was questioned by

23:37

Bobby Lee Cook. John

23:39

Johnson, a bf former federal

23:42

prosecutor from Houston, that

23:44

gripping the sides of the witness box like a

23:46

man driving a tractor before

23:49

him stood some reveal defense attorney

23:51

Bobby Lee Cook, who surveyed

23:53

Johnson over the rims of his glasses

23:55

like a cat contemplating at cage

23:57

Canary, the subject a

24:00

four year old federal drug probe named

24:02

Operation one Star, and the

24:04

secret government informant named Leslie

24:07

Bickerton. Miss Bickerton,

24:09

Chester's former office bookkeeper,

24:12

told Houston investigators that Chester

24:14

eliminated one potential snitch

24:17

from his organization, having him

24:19

murdered and seating his courts to alligators

24:21

in Florida. Because quickly became

24:24

the unofficial master of ceremonies, striding

24:27

about the room waving his arms, glaring

24:29

at witnesses like a pale, blue eyed

24:31

wrath of God preacher. The flamboyant

24:34

Somerville lawyer dominated the proceedings.

24:37

In a phone conversation, we had CB

24:40

Hackworth three calls bumping into Cook that

24:42

day, right before he headed into

24:44

the courtroom to question Johnson. We

24:48

were outside the program

24:51

after a lunch break. Bobby

24:53

Lee Cook was pacing back

24:56

and forth in the hallway. He

24:58

was obviously getting his thoughts together

25:01

to go in and begin his cross examination

25:04

of John Johnson, who had

25:06

said some potentially damaging

25:08

things. And just

25:11

as the bailiff came out

25:13

and said that the magistrate,

25:16

Alan Chancey was coming

25:18

back in, I got a Bobby

25:21

Lee turned to me, looked

25:23

right at me because I was sitting there,

25:26

not because I was special, and said

25:29

let's go feed somebody to the gators,

25:31

and he was referring to John Johnson, and

25:35

in my estimation, he pretty

25:37

much did exactly that. He dismantled

25:40

John Johnson in a way

25:42

that I can't remember ever

25:45

seeing before or since, anyone

25:48

just so completely humiliated

25:50

in the court room. Bobby

25:53

Lee Cook would also question Leslie

25:55

Bickerton in court, and perhaps

25:57

his skill as an attorney is most apparent

25:59

in Bickerton herself had a very

26:02

different personal experience than

26:04

those observing the interaction. I

26:09

had no idea what I was walking into

26:12

that courtroom. I didn't even know who

26:14

Bobby the Cook was. Nobody had ever mentioned

26:16

his name to me. The Feds

26:18

never told me about who this attorney was

26:21

and what to expect that day, and

26:25

so again I'm just set out

26:27

there. It's interesting that he was

26:29

able to really ingratiate

26:32

himself to you because

26:35

he completely understood

26:37

your plight. The way that he started

26:39

off of conversation, and

26:42

I distinctly remember, was

26:45

about dogs and about his bloodhounds

26:49

and about my dog Kevina

26:52

that was stuck down on the Darby

26:55

Islands. Stolen from you.

26:57

Really. Yeah, I've never

26:59

given back, and that's

27:02

what Bobby Leeque Cooks started

27:04

right off my dog Kevino

27:06

and put me at ease. I

27:09

don't remember even how long

27:11

I was on that witness stand. I just I

27:13

don't, but I do remember

27:16

at some point whatever the

27:18

questions were that mister

27:20

Cook was directing at me, I

27:23

just I foze. It

27:25

was like being in a road in

27:28

the semi's coming straight at you. You

27:30

know you have to move, but you can't move. Cb

27:36

Hackworth wrote about the exchange.

27:40

A key prosecution witness wept

27:42

yesterday as she admitted to defense attorneys

27:45

having lied at the behest of government

27:47

agents in an attempt to ensnare

27:49

accused White County drug smuggler Lamarchester,

27:53

saying that, quote, it wasn't

27:55

right. From the beginning, it

27:57

wasn't right. None of it was right, said

28:00

Leslie Bickerton, thirty three. She

28:03

said she was physically afraid

28:06

of John Johnson, a former

28:08

US attorney in Houston. Quote.

28:12

I felt like he didn't have any regard

28:14

for anybody, Miss Bickerton said, or

28:17

for the truth, added Chester's lead defense

28:19

attorney, Bobby Lee Cook of Somerville.

28:22

Yes, sir, he wanted you to lie,

28:25

charged Cook. Yes, Sir, said

28:27

Miss Bickerton, dabbing her eyes. Miss

28:30

Bickerton testified that Johnson told

28:32

her he believed there was a link between

28:34

Chester and the Bahamian Prime

28:37

Minister, Lyndon Pendling. It

28:39

also became apparent that Bickerton felt

28:41

she was being played and manipulated

28:44

by both sides. I

28:46

remember Bogar and

28:48

others in that courtroom laughing at

28:51

me while mister Cook was

28:54

asking questions for me like

28:56

I was a joke. I'll

28:58

never forget that. And I remember

29:02

I don't know what answers I was giving at

29:04

that point. I just frozen.

29:07

That stuck with me. Back

29:10

to CEB's reading of his article, she

29:13

said her knowledge of what the government agents

29:15

and prosecutors were willing to do made

29:18

her fear them. Miss Bickerton

29:20

said she also came to the conclusion she

29:22

was being used by the government and

29:24

decided to stop cooperating immediately

29:27

after her appearance before a federal

29:29

grand jury in Atlanta. Phil

29:32

Stanford recalls Cook's questioning

29:34

also exposed something else Bickerton's

29:37

feelings for Chester. Bobby Lee

29:39

Cook was questioning Leslie

29:42

about this, and it was remarkable. I mean,

29:44

he's a remarkable talker.

29:49

He was creating this novel on

29:51

his feet and drawing her into it.

29:54

And he says, and this is

29:57

I think when she had left

29:59

Houston and one back to Atlanta

30:03

to tell Lamar and his lawyers

30:05

about the changes she'd made to the records,

30:09

and he's sort of drawing

30:12

her into this story, into

30:14

her story as he would see it, of how

30:17

she filled at this time. And he said, and

30:19

there was this big pirate of a guy that

30:21

you know that she obviously couldn't resist,

30:24

and he just swept you off your feet. And

30:29

the US attorney Gaffney stands

30:31

up in his double soled wingtips

30:34

and says, I object, your honor, and she says,

30:36

no, no, let him continue. It

30:39

was from me the high point of the hearing.

30:42

But it showed, yeah,

30:45

there was an emotional tie

30:48

between the two of them. But

30:50

how and why Bickerton got tied

30:53

up in that emotional relationship and

30:55

the crosshairs of a federal investigation

30:58

is something she continues to grapple with,

31:01

particularly since some of it seemed orchestrated

31:04

by Chester. You mentioned that

31:06

he was controlling

31:09

and calculating for lack of

31:11

a better word. Looking back,

31:13

now, do you see

31:16

his advances on you as part

31:19

of that calculation? Ye,

31:23

mixed feelings because

31:25

I like Lamar, But then you also

31:27

know that you've just been betrayed and that you've

31:29

been set up that this is a person

31:31

who is a threat that can hurt me,

31:34

really hurt me, and at

31:36

the same time somebody who is presenting

31:38

themselves as your protector

31:40

and your predator at the same time. Right

31:44

after telling her her life was in jeopardy, Chester

31:47

offered to sneak Bickerton out of the country,

31:50

which she immediately took as another potential

31:53

threat, further indicative of their

31:55

dysfunctional personal relationship,

31:57

something she's still processing. So

32:00

when he crossed the line

32:03

over the professional relationship

32:06

into a personal and romantic

32:09

for lack of a better word, when

32:11

did that happen and what

32:13

was the context of it? Looking

32:16

back at it, I'd say it

32:18

makes you feel comfortable.

32:22

And I'm not just saying this for myself, because

32:24

I know a lot of other people that have been connected with

32:26

him, and I've asked, is it just me

32:29

a predator? Time is on their

32:32

side in most cases, and

32:34

they're just waiting for the right person,

32:36

right mark to come along. Psychologically,

32:40

what predators can do is

32:43

to make you feel very comfortable, and

32:45

it's done on purpose, so that you're

32:47

not even asking questions

32:50

that you should be asking, and

32:52

being a little bit more careful given that he's

32:55

you know, this person's a stranger. So

32:57

psychologically it's very subtle

33:00

and it's deliberate, and it's extremely

33:03

manipulative and controlling, so

33:06

subtle that you don't see the signs.

33:09

You just don't. So

33:11

when I first met him, he

33:13

was cordial and maybe

33:17

comfortable, you know, because I was interested

33:19

in going to Darby Island and did

33:22

so the romantic side

33:24

of it, if you want to call it that, I

33:27

don't know, maybe a month or two months, something

33:30

like that. But there wasn't. It wasn't. I

33:33

didn't fall up with him. And it's

33:36

hard to explain, Lauren, it really is.

33:39

It was part of the manipulation, part

33:41

of getting you to trust him

33:44

and then also being beholden

33:47

to him. Right, and

33:49

then it's like you see the opposite side

33:51

of the coin. It's evil.

33:54

It's pure evil,

33:57

a darkness that is

34:00

emotionally, mentally, physically

34:03

beyond human comprehension.

34:06

It changes you forever. There's just something

34:09

that you're always always

34:11

on your guard. In nineteen

34:13

eighty one to nineteen eighty five,

34:16

so four in tense

34:18

years of hiding because

34:21

I never knew who was going to come at me and everything

34:23

that was going on at that time. So

34:26

you have that period of time. But

34:28

then the ripple effects was

34:31

ongoing. As

34:42

for Chester, his growing desperation

34:45

and belief that Phil Stanford

34:47

would somehow facilitate CIA

34:49

efforts to sweep in and make his legal

34:52

issues disappear continued.

34:56

Lamar sends me to DC to talk

34:58

to my people. I go and

35:00

just spend some time. And Lamar asked

35:03

me over the phone when I found

35:06

out, and I say nothing. You know, as

35:08

usual, I'm not very talkative. And

35:11

at that point, from then on, Lamar

35:14

really didn't expect

35:16

anything from me. In Miami,

35:19

things was really falling apart. I was doing

35:21

some other investigative work

35:24

that was leading in sort of dark directions.

35:27

I had to get out. I loaded everything

35:29

in my car and drove back, moved

35:32

back to DC and

35:35

went back to all the usual

35:37

places on the hill, congressional

35:40

offices, magazines,

35:43

trying to get a job. And I remember

35:45

going back to one one of the places where I

35:47

used to work and said,

35:50

yeah, you used to be someone and

35:52

it didn't mean that much to me then, But I see

35:55

what he meant now. One of the people

35:57

I did we do some work for was Danny

36:00

she who had the Christic Institute, and

36:02

at that time they were

36:05

in the course of their own investigations into

36:07

El Salvador and then the death squads. There

36:10

come across information

36:12

about what the United States was doing in

36:15

Nicaragua and other places in Central America

36:17

and the drugs for guns trade

36:21

they were trying to expose that. That's

36:23

so interesting, particularly if

36:25

you go back to Chester's

36:28

claim that he was running guns into

36:30

Nicaragua, and then also in

36:33

court filings and in articles

36:35

with CBE Hackworth, Chester claimed

36:38

that he was involved

36:41

with Flying Samosa, you

36:43

know, Nicaragua's then president before

36:46

he was overthrown and assassinated in

36:48

nineteen eighty by the Sandinistas.

36:51

Chester claimed he flew Semosa's

36:53

son in and out of Florida

36:56

at the request of the US government.

36:59

So it's just interesting that Shean's

37:01

looking into Nicaragua and Chester's

37:05

claims back up what he

37:07

seems to be looking into. Yeah,

37:10

and have to remember that this was

37:14

at least a year and a half, two years

37:16

before any of this really

37:19

started surfacing in the press in

37:22

the United States, so it was still

37:26

hard even for me. I wasn't

37:28

convinced that Chester was telling the truth about

37:30

this. It all seems so crazy

37:33

and it could have been true, it might

37:35

have been false. I think it's also

37:37

interesting that Bobby

37:39

Lee Cook has a Nicaragua

37:42

Simosa connection because Semosa

37:45

hired Bobby Lee Cook basically to

37:48

clean up a report about

37:51

Nicaragua in terms of its reputation

37:54

in terms of human rights, because he

37:56

wanted to get more aid from the

37:58

US State Department. Yeah. I'm

38:01

not sure what connection, if any, that has

38:03

to Lamar's activities, but

38:06

it's more an indication to me anyway.

38:08

Bobby Lee Cook's connections to

38:11

people in high places, and

38:14

if Chester started to sound paranoid

38:16

about perceived threats to his life, it's

38:19

hard to know where they'd be coming from. As

38:22

in addition to his claims of CIA connections,

38:25

multiple reports tied him to mob

38:27

connections and Colombian cartels.

38:29

But his legal issues weren't

38:32

exactly mild or insignificant

38:34

either. He was openly boasting

38:36

about being a prolific drug smuggler and having

38:38

run hundreds of trips into the United States.

38:41

Contrast that to the sentence we mentioned

38:44

linked to the Black Tuna Gang in episode

38:46

one, and you can see why Chester

38:49

might have felt desperate. Drug

38:52

smuggling was also the topic at federal court today

38:54

with the beginning of testimony in the government's Black Tuna

38:56

case. As a recap, the Black

38:59

Tuna Gang ran Miami's drug trade

39:01

in the nineteen seventies. All

39:03

in all, the gang was accused of importing around five

39:05

hundred tons of marijuana to the United States

39:08

over the course of sixteen months. Federal

39:10

Judge James King listened as one time smuggler

39:12

turned government informant Luke McLeod told

39:14

of the eight tons of marijuana which he claims

39:17

to have delivered to the key defendants, Robertminster

39:19

and Robert platt Shorn in nineteen seventy four. Nineteen

39:22

seventy five, they charged Platshorn

39:24

under a Kingpin statute that was meant

39:26

for much heavier drug offenses.

39:29

But I really remembered about that is that he

39:31

got sixty years for smuggling

39:34

marijuana in the United States.

39:38

Bobby Platshorn was actually sentenced

39:41

to sixty four years and served thirty

39:43

until recently earning the dubious distinction

39:46

of being America's longest imprisoned non

39:48

violent marijuana offender. Now

39:50

in his mid seventies, plat Shorn says

39:53

the magnitude of his crimes was a fraction

39:55

of what he was accused thirty

39:59

years prison for importing

40:01

marijuana, first offense,

40:04

non violent. I caught the

40:06

first kingpin charge they

40:08

ever gave for marijuana, and

40:11

I was prosecuted for eight

40:14

forty eight continuing criminal enterprise,

40:16

also known as the Kingpin

40:19

statue. When I first saw that,

40:21

I had no idea what it meant, because

40:24

I don't think I was even a safety pin, let

40:26

alone kingpin, but

40:29

the government hung on me. Today,

40:32

platform's a marijuana legalization activist

40:34

and an entrepreneur putting to use

40:36

his knowledge of the law that was weaponized

40:38

against him. I put it

40:40

to work when I got out of prison by

40:43

starting the Silver Tour to

40:45

change minds about marijuana, to

40:48

cater to the senior demographic

40:51

who have the all important vote

40:53

in just about every state in the Union.

40:56

And I'm known for thirty

41:00

years in prison and the last

41:02

ten years legalizing one state

41:04

after another. In addition

41:06

to now being a pioneering pot advocate

41:08

for the elderly, which is the fastest

41:10

growing segment of the medical marijuana market.

41:13

Platforn's made his mark in the legalized

41:15

weed world with his aptly named

41:18

and super popular Black Tuna

41:20

marijuana strain. He's also written

41:22

Black Tuna Diaries, a memoir, and

41:24

is featured in the documentary Square Grouper.

41:27

And he remains adamant that his noteworthy

41:30

and notorious sentence was actually

41:33

more connected to corruption than cannabis.

41:36

Corruption Here a

41:39

new corruption. Here an attorney

41:42

who I knew to be the bagman for

41:44

federal judge said,

41:46

the judge wants three million bucks, which

41:49

we had gladly give him. If we had three million

41:51

bucks, we had put the money

41:54

in our homes, in our businesses.

41:57

Between Robbie and I, we were able to scrape

41:59

up about a million three

42:01

a million and a half, and the

42:04

judge sent us a message, you'll

42:06

be sorry, and

42:09

we were. Plat Shorn

42:11

says he sat through his trial knowing

42:13

the whole thing was a farce. It

42:16

was a show trial beginning to end. Half

42:19

the things that happened or were set at the trial

42:21

just were made up out of thin air. At

42:24

sentencing, Judge James Lawrence King said

42:27

quote, the price for participation in

42:29

this traffic should be prohibitive. It

42:31

should be made too dangerous to

42:33

be attractive. Now

42:37

this is only mister plat Shorne's

42:39

version of the events, but it does show

42:41

the potential impact that law

42:44

used to make a statement an example, could

42:46

have had on someone as public

42:48

and vocal about their illicit activities as

42:50

lamar Chester. I did reach out multiple

42:53

times to the office of Judge King for a statement,

42:56

but received no response. It

42:58

is interesting to know that Judge King was

43:01

also responsible for the ruling in nineteen

43:04

eighty nine which would put an end

43:06

to the Christic Institute, the public interest

43:08

law firm which employed Phil Stamford

43:11

for a time. I had first come

43:13

across the Judge James King

43:15

when I was covering the Black Tuned trial down

43:18

in Miami. I was working at the newspaper.

43:20

Then I went back to the files

43:23

and looked him up and it

43:25

turned out he had been on

43:27

the board of a mob

43:30

bank back in the sixties, the

43:34

board of directors of Meyer Lansky

43:37

Bank that's connected to the Teamster's Central

43:40

Fund and Central States Fund. Phil remembers

43:42

talking to Danny she And about Judge King, who

43:45

was presiding over Sheen's case. He'd

43:47

made this a court

43:50

case of I think it was a recal

43:53

case in federal court, and

43:56

he was going to prove that the US government

43:59

was complicit in this drugs

44:01

and arms trade in the wars

44:04

in Central America. So what do

44:06

you think of the judge? What do you think of Judge

44:08

King? He said, Oh, I think he's been pretty fair up

44:10

to now. Well, it turns out that King

44:13

was just giving them enough rope

44:15

to hang themselves with. And

44:18

after about a year of Danny's

44:20

trial in DC, he

44:23

threw out Danny's case, said

44:25

he didn't have the evidence he needed to argue it, and

44:28

charged him in the Christic

44:30

Institute with legal fees for

44:32

the other side, which came to a million

44:34

dollars, effectively bankrupted

44:37

the Christic Institute. Okay,

44:42

back to our timeline and story. It's now

44:44

June of nineteen eighty five, and

44:47

so I'm back in DC for about

44:49

a year and I get a call from

44:51

Bob Adams and in Miami

44:54

and he says, you're not going to believe

44:56

it. Lamar just died. It

45:01

is in a plane crash at his farm in Georgia.

45:04

Remember how Lamar was fighting

45:06

to get his pilot's license back. Trials

45:08

coming up in a few weeks, the

45:11

Vegert side to give him his pilot's license back,

45:13

so to celebrate, he took his piper

45:15

cup up little daughter Ajas, five

45:18

years old with him for a joy

45:20

ride around his farm

45:23

and they crashed. What happened

45:25

to his daughter, she was in the hospital. She'd

45:28

broken her back, and no one knew what was going to happen

45:30

to her. And the official

45:33

explanation of the crash was

45:35

that he ran out of fuel, but no

45:37

one believed that an

45:39

experienced pilot like Lamar would check the

45:42

fuel levels before he took off. And

45:44

the first person on the scene was a GBI

45:47

agent who Lamar had had some run

45:49

ins with Georgia Bureau of Investigations.

45:52

Yeah, he just happened to be there at

45:55

the scene. He even got to the crash

45:57

before Lamar's father, who

46:00

was living on the property. So you

46:02

found the story about

46:04

the crash suspicious, not just suspicious,

46:07

unbelievable. He was murdered

46:12

On the next murder in Miami. Ron

46:15

Elliott shares his version of being

46:17

at Chester's farm on the night before

46:20

he died. In the crash. I yelled at

46:22

him, be careful that two cars out there.

46:24

The cars tore off towards the gate. Lamar

46:26

yelled at me to get in the pickup. He was coming

46:28

with a shotgun and an expert on the

46:30

covered activities of the CIA weighs

46:33

in on the plausibility of the gray

46:35

Mail defense of international

46:37

drug smuggler. Lamar chester absolutely

46:40

credible. That's credible all,

46:43

at least absolute sense. Murder

46:47

in Miami is a production of iHeartRadio.

46:50

Executive producers are Lauren Bright Pacheco,

46:53

Taylor Chicoine, and Phil Stanford.

46:56

Written by Phil Stanford and Lauren

46:58

Bright Pacheco, Adeo, editing

47:00

and sound design by Nicholas Harder, Evan

47:03

Tyre and Taylor Chacogne. Featuring

47:05

music by Evan Tyre, Phil Meyer, John

47:08

Murchison, and Taylor Schacogne. Archival

47:11

elements provided by Lennon Lewis Wolfson

47:13

the Second Florida Moving Image Archives.

47:16

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit

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the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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or wherever you get the stories that matter

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to you.