Where were you?, Hemphill: I was in your p***y. Initially, Hemphill refused to provide further details of his whereabouts on July 16, 1996. I knew his sisters, I knew his brother, he said. By the end of the two episodes devoted to the Flowers case, they had all abandoned Curtis as a suspect. Just weeks ago, however, reporters discovered that Hemphill had an upcoming court date in Indianapolis and met him there. Thats just standard procedure. "I was out of the whole jurisdiction in another state.". After a multistate manhunt, Presley and Gamble were arrested in Norfolk, Virginia. A Hearing. A .380-caliber is hard to control. He's shown a fearlessness about committing brazen attacks and thefts in daylight with high risks and low payoff, in places close to where he's lived and where people are more likely to recognize him. Passed away February 25, 2012. Submit an Obituary. In The Darks reporting on the case documented the inequities and outright barbarism of Mississippis criminal justice system. Hemphill had previously told police and the podcast that he was not in Winona on the morning of the murders. F.T. But there was no mention of the Alabama crimes and suspects in the investigative files the prosecution had turned over to Flowers' defense attorneys. SEND FLOWERS. And in searching for Hemphill, she came upon a cousin with the same name who recalled three carloads of deputies showing up at his mobile home in 1996 looking for the other Hemphill. In 1996, central Alabama saw a string of armed robberies, where the criminals told store clerks to lie down and held them at gunpoint, sometimes killing them. "I don't know nothing about it.". The Dallas Morning News Homepage. The killer or killers could have used the key to enter the side door, perhaps hiding before the store opened. It remains unclear why Mississippi investigators ruled them out as suspects. The funeral service will be 1pm Sunday at China Grove A.M.E. Zion Church. EPISODE 16. But attempting to deliver another black man into that same system goes against its good work. For Ali and the other lawyers working on Flowers' appeal at the time, this was a significant revelation. But after several hours of interviews conducted over two days, Hemphill finally disclosed his alibi: He said he was at a mall in Memphis at the time of the murders, with a Winona woman named Twanda Woods. Quantico National Cemetery. Memphis is two hours north of Winona, just across the border with Tennessee. Armstrong questions whether Flowers could have carried out the killings of four people execution-style. (Although that figure is, at best, an educated guess.). She lived in Winston, Mississippi, United States in 1930 and Beat 2, Winston, Mississippi, United States in 1940. "Best I remember is somebody brought it to the attention of the investigators that they wanted us to talk to him, and he came in and we talked to him," Matthews said on the stand in the sixth trial. Katie Ali had been researching parallels between the Tardy Furniture murders and a string of similar crimes that had happened that same summer in neighboring Alabama. American Public Media reports that Hemphills ex-girlfriend Monkra Moore said she and Hemphill lived together in 1996 and claimed that he was home in Winona at around 7am on the morning of the murders. The July 16, 1996, killings of Tardy Furniture owner Bertha Tardy, 59, and three employees, Carmen Rigby, 45, Robert Golden, 42, and Derrick Stewart, 16, have haunted this town ever since. He is aiming to get bail, which is rare in capital murder cases. Why offer up another suspect? Hemphill's ex-girlfriend Monkra Moore told In the Dark that she and Hemphill lived together on the east side of Winona in 1996 and that he was at home around 7 a.m. on the morning of the murders when she was leaving for work. Records show he was questioned Hemphill said he was interrogated for hours and held for 11 days before being released. The second season of the In the Dark podcast is about the case of Curtis Flowers, who was tried six times for the same crime. Despite raising earthshaking doubts about the justice system, the show ultimately conforms to the systems logic that crime, denuded of context, must be solved and punished. Willie James McDaniel Funeral services for Willie James McDaniel will be held at 12:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 26, 2022, at Hemphill Star Church in Boyce, La. It might mean letting someone get away with an abominable crime. "You're confusing me. In 1996, Mississippi investigators told the local paper they were looking into a possible connection. Detective Goldberg got Presley and Gamble to confess their roles in a pair of murders at a Birmingham pawn shop less than two weeks after the Tardy Furniture murders. January 5, 1960 - August 13, 2009. - Law enforcement had interviewed a different suspect with a violent criminal history, Willie James Hemphill - a fact which was not disclosed to the defense. Flowers, who had been fired from the store 13 days before the murders, reportedly owed a small amount of money to one of the owners. Though he was a suspect early in the investigation, according to law enforcement records, and questioned extensively, Hemphill was later released after 11 days in jail and ruled out as a suspect for reasons that remain unclear. The bodies of Derrick Stewart, 16, Robert Golden, 42, Carmen Rigby, 45, and Bertha Tardy, 59, were found spread throughout the store and in the back office. The Dallas Morning News. The shooter, Marcus Presley (16) and his accomplice, Lasamuel Gamble (18) were arrested in Norfolk, Virginia on August 9, 1996 after two weeks on the run. Reporters also poked holes in Hemphill . 0 Add Rating Anonymously. His website is. INDIANAPOLIS At first, Willie James Hemphill was calm. "We have never had any evidence that showed anything other than this defendant's guilt," Evans said. Could those responsible for Tardy Furniture murders have escaped a different way? Saums believes whoever carried out the crime had inside information. Who was he? Each victim had been murdered execution styleone or two bullets to the back of the head. Appendix III: List of Soldiers by Name Updated February 22, 2005 War of 1812 Discharge Certificates Appendix I: List of Units and Subunits Appendix II: List of Company/Detachment Commanders Appendix III: List of Soldiers by Name Appendix IV: List of Soldiers by Unit Appendix III: List of Soldiers by Name [table striped="true" responsive="true"]NameYearRegimentCompanyAbbey, Edward17951st . Who was he? She said she had seen somebody at 7:15 a.m. outside Simpsons car at the factory. Back in 1996, there had even been speculation in the media that the crimes could be connected, and investigators had told the local paper they were looking into it. Are you a sl*t? Yet despite a number of theft and drug charges, probation violations, at least four domestic violence convictions and a girlfriend who alleges he stabbed her 13 times Hemphill has managed to avoid a long stint in prison. During nearly 30 years of crimes, Willie James Hemphill has shown a quick temper, and a penchant for daytime robberies and violence against women. But both denied having committed the Tardy murders and said they'd never even been to Mississippi. Username. <p>Prosecutors have always said that Curtis Flowers was the only serious suspect in the Tardy Furniture investigation. My mom, my stepdad were afraid that, hey, if they're manhunting me like that, they may shoot me down in the street, Hemphill told them. According to court records, he was "swinging a machete and causing a. Saums pointed out that Simpson who has since died lied to police about how he had gotten the gun. That day in October 2015, Ali was looking at a photo lineup that law enforcement had used to implicate Flowers in the Tardy case. And that's what I know," said David Goldberg, now retired from his job as a detective in the Norfolk Police Department. The crime itself was extraordinary, but the case drew In The Darks attention because a local prosecutor had tried Flowers six times for the murders. He allegedly stabbed a woman with a screwdriver, among other violent crimes. What an Alabama crime spree might reveal about the Curtis Flowers investigation. Me and her was leaving," he said, forfeiting his Memphis alibi altogether and placing himself a short walk from Tardy Furniture. Afraid that he would be shot on sight if he didnt surrender, Hemphill turned himself in at the local police station (wearing Grant Hill Filas, the shoes investigators had linked to a bloody footprint at the crime scene) and was immediately handcuffed and booked into the local lock-up. Gamble never discharged his weapon. If the state Supreme Court were to order a seventh trial for Flowers, the district attorney would face a difficult task, Saums said. Their reporters know better than anyone that Hemphill wouldnt get a fair trial. Mark Weingarten is an American production sound mixer.He has been nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Sound Mixing, winning in 2017 for Dunkirk.He has worked on more than 120 films since 1987. His age is 79. Wiilie Hemphill passed away in Bryan, Texas. Doyle, he said, used to work for Tardy Furniture.. After nearly 23 years locked up, Curtis Flowers has a chance to get out on bail if his lawyers can convince the judge to rule in his favor. Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife and son. If Gamble and McKenzie were in Mississippi the day of the Winona murders its very possible that Presley was with them. How did your name get involved in this?, Hemphill: I wasnt in the city. He died on December 28, 1908, at his home in the section of Abbeville called Fort Pickens, and is buried in Melrose Cemetary, Abbeville. Following that arrest, Hemphill committed crimes nearly continuously for the next three decades. He died on May 27, 2008 at age 66. Illuminating Journalism from American Public Media. On July 14, his mother, Lola, died of surgery complications. Fourteen lawyers. We have lots of information about Willie: religious views are listed as Christian . … Ive had many trials where no black jurors were struck., But the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned Flowers conviction in his third trial, ruling Evans had intentionally struck African Americans from the jury. Can Marcus Presleys affidavit be trusted? The Dallas Morning News Homepage. . They fell out and broke. It was his legal obligation, but its easy to see why he didnt. On 03/12/2020 Willie Hemphill filed a Prisoner - Other Prisoner lawsuit against Warden. He didnt bother anybody.. used to implicate Flowers in the Tardy case. Menu. James Mather at IMDb; This page was last . He said he would have sent a written report back to Mississippi, so authorities there could check out the stories. All times AEDT (GMT +11). Search for Roberto Thorpe Living on Prison Blvd in Sparta, GA. Get started for free to find contact info for nearly any adult in the U.S. "Yes, sir," Snow replied. By his own account, someone told investigators that they'd seen him on Front Street that morning, though Hemphill has said repeatedly that he wasn't there. And in the first Flowers trial, in 1997, he testified that "there were numerous suspects" in the early days of the investigation. There is little doubt that Hemphill has done terrible things. Find Willie Hemphill's phone number, address, and email on Spokeo, the leading online directory for contact information. Since police, sheriff's deputies, jailers and highway patrol investigators work for the state, if they turn up anything that casts doubt on the defendant's guilt, the prosecutor must hand it over to the defense. Presley and Gamble did four of the June heists together and one crime was perpetrated by Presley alone. Her rough exterior portrayed a tough, independent woman. A witness whose statement put a man on death row for 22 years has performed a remarkable backflip, turning a case on its head. In total, he killed four people and wounded three others in the space of just three months. He spent 11 days in jail before authorities released him. July 2, 2019 | by Parker Yesko and Dave Mann. WrongManleans tentatively fingers Doyle Simpson as the prime suspect. It wasn't until Flowers' sixth trial that jurors heard anything about the Alabama suspects. Episode 10 of the In the DarkPodcast was largely dedicated to the strange case ofWillie James Hemphill, a local bad boy with a violent streak who was continually getting cross-ways with the law. Flowers was convicted and sentenced to death in the first three trials, but each time, the verdict was overturned on appeal for prosecutorial misconduct in the first and second trials, and for racially discriminatory jury selection in the third. Presley murdered four people and wounded three others in a spree of robberies and murders that year. And Hemphill had actually lived for a time in Winona. Investigators said the Simpson brothers were eliminated quickly because they were both at work at the time of the murders. An August 15, 1996, article in The Winona Times reported that law enforcement officials in three states "released statements that they believe [Presley and Gamble] could be linked to Winona's case.". Episode 10 of the In the Dark Podcast was largely dedicated to the strange case of Willie James Hemphill, a local bad boy with a violent streak who was continually getting cross-ways with the law. He said he called Tardy the next day, asking if he still had a job, and she said he didnt. … A bunch of lies., Asked about Hallmons recantation, District Attorney Doug Evans, who has prosecuted Flowers in all six trials, said, Thats why the judge instructs the jury that a jailhouse informant is not very reliable, because they can change their statements very easily, for any reason. with Reverend Shane Russell officiating, assisted by Max Bennett. Hemphill was held in jail for 11 days, according to county records, though it's not clear why he was held. We developed information that Doyle was missing from work that morning for about 30 or 40 minutes, which was about the time of the murders, he said. Its almost impossible to not hate him and to believe he is guilty. Prior to his death, Doyle came across as a passive man working hard to stay out of trouble. Law enforcement had interviewed a different suspect with a violent criminal history, Willie James Hemphill a fact which was not disclosed to the defense. If Flowers did what he is accused of doing, he deserves his punishment, Armstrong said. Burial will follow in Hemphill Star Cemetery, Boyce. Montgomery County Sheriff Bill Thornburg searched Moores home and found a size 10.5 Fila Grant Hill shoebox in a dresser at her house. According to testimony in Flowers' first trial, authorities found $255 hidden in the headboard of Flowers' girlfriend. Baran found Hemphills booking card showing he had been arrested and jailed a few days after the killing. He allegedly stabbed a woman with a screwdriver, among other violent crimes. The Tardy Furniture murders were committed at a store on Front Street in Winona, Mississippi, at about 10 a.m., and around the time that one of the store's employees, Carmen Rigby, was returning with a bank bag. ", If Evans and his prosecution witnesses knowingly or unknowingly withheld evidence from the defense of other suspects in the Winona killings, they could be in violation of the Brady rule, named after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says a criminal defendant must be given evidence that could point toward his innocence. "He would have just told me everything and anything at that point," Goldberg said. Visitation will be 10 a.m. to 7 p.m . In Flowers' third trial, Snow testified that the height of the man she saw was between 5-foot-3 and 5-foot-5. He said he knew nothing about the burglary. One, Rigby,was killed with two shots to the head. You can send your sympathy in the guestbook provided and share it with the family. Right now, Willie Hemphill lives in Rock Hill, SC. Before he left on July 3, he said she gave him $30. Willie James Hemphill was confronted in an Indianapolis courthouse last week, 23 years after police deemed him an initial suspect but later pursued leads against Flowers. Miller also asked the investigator to interrogate Presley and Gamble about the Tardy Furniture murders. "I can't recall seeing him that day," Woods said. You may also light a candle in honor of Willie James . Quantico . AVERAGE AGE. Steven McKenzie, the driver of the getaway car in the pawn shop murders, was arrested on August 1 in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. They wanted to ask him about his alibi for the day of the Tardy Furniture murders, an alibi that hadn't checked out. Eight days later, Tardy and three others working for the store were killed execution-style. And why did Doyles brother, Emmett, run from law enforcement when they came to question him on the morning of the crime? On July 19, the Clarion Ledger did just that, finding wires, broken concrete blocks, parts of childrens toys and a plastic dog bone. And maybe his girlfriend, Katherine Snow, told the authorities that she saw Curtis leaning up against Doyle Simpsons car because thats what investigators wanted to hear. But instead of stopping there, its reporters started snitching to the same system whose injustice they had just unmasked. He said that side door leads to a ditch that would have provided a better escape route than simply walking back through town as authorities claimed Flowers had. APM Reports, the investigative and documentary reporting team based in St. Paul, Minnesota, spent a year digging into the Flowers case for its In the Dark podcast. Although Presley was only sixteen, he seems to have been the driving force behind these crimes. And, unlike Curtis, Doyle had more than a passing acquaintance with organized crime (a mobster once left him for dead in a field outside of New Orleans). Hemphill supposedly had an alibi for the time of the murders, but when In The Dark dug into it, they were able to determine his alibi was barely credible if at all. Told that Woods had a clear memory of being in Winona on the morning of July 16 and learning, outside the Piggly Wiggly, that the murders had just happened, Hemphill interrupted and altered his story. Two weeks later, a picture of Marcus Presley, the shooter in the Birmingham murders, was included in a photo array shown to Porky Collins, a witness in the Winona, Mississippi case. Share to Facebook. Hemphill certainly sounds like a career criminal who is fully capable of committing violence; but he doesnt come off as a psychopathic killerand whoever did the deed at the Tardy furniture store was either a hired killer (or killers) or enjoyed killing people for kicks. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. OBITUARIES. No one was going to all that trouble over the approximately $400 investigators say was in the till that morning. Hemphill seemed surprised when reminded that he'd told In the Dark in June 2018 that he was with an old friend named Twanda Woods. That said, I dont see a compelling motive, and none of these people is any more capable of pulling off an outrage on this scale than poor Curtis Flowers. Willie Dixon - The Big Three Trio 1947-1952 (Roots N' Blues C 46216) FLAC . Look, Ive got something yall need to get, he said he told them. The officer who was with Small when they pulled over Armstrong for speeding told APM Reports that Armstrong had indeed given them a handgun, which was turned over to the district attorneys office. While talking to them, he said he told them about his discovery. Search by Name. (1870), A.M. (1872), and LL.D. When we finally found Hemphill, living in Indianapolis, he had some very surprising things to say about the case . They have also lived in Franklin, NC and North Fort Myers, FL. The show has won rightful fame for its work helping to save Flowers life. So, if Curtis Flowers isnt guilty, who is? Selected filmography. We know that Willie James Hemphill had been residing in Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina 29341. The second season of the In the Dark podcast is about the case of Curtis Flowers, who was tried six times for the same crime. Following a masterful turn as Flowers defense lawyer, the podcast also wanted to play the part of the prosecution. Hemphills name came up briefly in Flowers 2010 trial. The answer was yes many, many times. Not the right Willie? One of them, LaSamuel Gamble, had more money in his possession when he returned to Alabama, Presley said. "The best of my recollection, Mississippi was able to determine that our guys weren't the ones, or there was something that didn't make them right for the Mississippi case," said Mike DeHart, the Alabama sheriff's deputy who questioned Gamble. Suppressing the evidence theyve already gathered might mean denying justice to the victims. I knew Curtis had started to get involved in crack. That brings us to a theory that has been explored extensively by some of the folks currently representing Mr. John Johnson, the DAs investigator, told the jury, I think they talked to him for five minutes. "[I]t's almost like a hair trigger that would cause a reversal if you've got false testimony that is significant.". Flowers gave authorities conflicting statements about the times he went to these places. But that doesnt mean that he killed those four people at Tardy Furniture. Sarah Warnock and Jerry Mitchell/Clarion Ledger, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Hemphill also wasnt held briefly. Judge Joseph Loper asked Evans if the state had any exculpatory evidence.. We encourage you to research and . And then Hemphill stormed off, ending the interview. Their names are Michael Lee Boies , Crystal Davis , and six others. But Flowers deserves to have a fair trial and prosecution, he said. The only other such form in the file was signed by Flowers. Whoever killed four innocent people in the Tardy Furniture store on that fateful day in 1996 was familiar with armed violence and kind of liked it. "I was coming out of Piggly Wiggly and there was a woman, I will never forget her name. The judge denied Flowers' request to attend his mother funeral here on July 21. View contact information: phones, addresses, emails and networks. Willie James Hemphill is confronted by reporters at an Indianapolis courthouse in June 2019. The accused has had his conviction overturned for the sixth time, the woman who put him at the scene of the murders has backflipped on her story and another man has been forced to deny it was him all along. LOW HIGH. 1.58 3.33 /5. 4). Following their Alabama crime spree, Presley and Gamble fled north to Boston, where Gamble had relatives. But that doesnt make Doyle a cold killer. So, if Curtis didnt do this terrible deed, who did? Not the right Willie? Presley wasnt the only suspect defense attorneys didnt know investigators had seriously considered. Yet theyre willing to hand him over to the prosecution, to possibly watch him die. Evidence that prosecution witnesses may have given false testimony could potentially get Flowers' conviction overturned, said Bennett Gershman, a former prosecutor who now teaches law at Pace University. But he never cut ties with Winona, where his grandmother remained and where he committed a slew of small-time thefts in the years before and after the Tardy Furniture murders, according to public records. His full criminal history is too lengthy to reproduce here. Visitation: 6-8 pm Friday, March 2, 2012 at Laurel Land Funeral Home. LOW HIGH. Her new position on exactly what happened that morning is likely to be heard by a jury if Fleming faces one for a seventh time. Belfast (2021; co-nominated with Denise Yarde, Simon Chase and Niv Adiri) References External links. He freely admitted that he had been a suspect and even says that, although innocent, he would have made a more convincing suspect than Curtis. Small is now claiming that I never gave (the gun) to him, Armstrong said. By licks he meant places to rob.. Willie James Hemphill Addresses Click Here For Willie James Hemphill's Last Known Address 1241 Hatfield Dr, Evansville, IN 47714 1001 Mississippi Ave, Greenwood, MS 38930. The podcast has never cared about the fundamental horrors of the justice system; it just wants to ensure that those horrors only happen to the correct people. Wrong Manpresented us with a small group of criminal justice professionals who started out believing that Curtis was probably the killer. When we finally found Hemphill, living in Indianapolis, he had some very surprising things to say about the case. The investigative file contained no indication of what Hemphill said or why he was eliminated as a suspect. When Flowers went back on trial, Armstrong heard no mention of the gun by either prosecutors or defense attorneys. Add a Memory. As I argue in the course of the program, Simpson seemed to be bending over backwards to let the world know that a gun had been stolen from his car in the parking lot of the garment factory where he worked. Willie James Hemphill was born on May 27, 1919. In the sixth, he was again convicted and sentenced to death, and his latest appeal was ongoing when the podcast started. Flowers, the individuals I reference as the Birmingham boys. Later, he said, one of the officers, Vince Small, came by, and he handed the officer the gun. But Curtis Flowers is somehow still not cleared of the gruesome quadruple murder on July 16, 1996. The police there picked up the investigation and also apparently probed the Tardy Furniture connection. A burglary took place at Tardy Furniture just eight days before the killings. In the course of these crimes, one employee was shot in the leg and another in the back (both survived) and Presley was the shooter in both cases. Even so, they had to wade through a stack of rat-eaten files stored in an abandoned factory to realize he had been booked into jail. Then why havent the defense attorneys who have represented Mr. Eight persons linked to this address. Finding the truly guilty person (or people) strengthens the case that Flowers is innocent. The two of them walked the same school halls from first grade through high school, he said. The district attorneys office isnt commenting. It was all make believe. There are 60+ professionals named "Willie Hemphill", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities.