Boys On the Tracks /// Part 2 /// 94 | Forensic Files

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GameChanger [Music] [Applause] all [Applause] welcome to True Crime garage wherever
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captain yeah some people keep asking me uh who did the music on that one it's the captain it's still the captain
that's my job well that's enough of the business let's get to the trailer everybody gather around grab a chair
grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime [Applause] where we at didn't realize there was
anybody else out there first we were just like I said goof and KN uh and uh we come up on or didn't really come up
on and we noticed there were people on the track so the flashlight come on and then go back off they weren't looking in
our Direction but we could see the light and so we kind of quieted down and snuck
up a little bit closer to see what was going on and there was five individuals uh standing on the tracks one thing that
struck my curiosity is uh at the time my mother was dating uh an attorney named Dan Dan Harmon I know him well enough to
recognize him there were two more individuals that uh few minutes after we got there uh we walking down the
railroad tracks that had a rifle uh and it looked to be a flashlight they were more or less kind of minding their own
business uh and when they realized someone else was on the track they stopped and it was fixing to turn
around when someone or Danny motioned for him to come closer over to where they were uh
they hesitated and eventually ended up walking on towards the rest of the group while my head was turned I heard a
well it sounded like a gunshot soft flash as you would expect with a gunshot at night we were pretty much terrified
and boed and R other Witnesses corroborated that [Music] evidence this is part two of the boys on
the tracks case Captain should we do a little recap last time on true CR Garage in the early morning hours of August
23rd 1987 this is in Bryant Arkansas two boys were laying motionless on the train
tracks and they were passed over by the train the investigation of their deaths falls into the jurisdiction of the
Saline County Sheriff's office now that investigation has been called botched at
best and where it picks up from there the medical examiner this is Fami Malik he takes over the case and he has to
investigate his ruling on the cause of the boy deaths he's going to claim that the boys were high on marijuana and they
passed out on the train tracks then the train came and ran the boys over and that's the cause of death ruling it an
accidental death you're exactly correct exactly so the parents of the two boys are obviously dissatisfied with the
sheriff's investigation as well as the medical examiner's findings so they schedule a press conference and it's
after this press conference that a grand jury is established and the grand jury decides that they review the they review
the evidence and they decide that the cause of death might not be accidental that it's a possible homicide and
they're going to call for a second autopsy after the grand jury successfully got the latest autopsy this
was conducted by well-renowned pathologist Dr Burton now remember he was from out of state he was actually
from Atlanta because they they needed not only fresh eyes on this but they needed someone that would not have
connections locally or at the state level but also at the time Atlanta and Dr Burton had access to better
technology this is going to change their findings of the death not being accidental but by being murdered yes
let's let's say correcting right because they they just got it wrong from the beginning so from a possible homicide to
a definite homicide and because the grand jury and the change in the correcting of the rulings of death the
investigation was then transferred to the jur jurisdiction of the Arkansas State Police I say that because it's not
only important to the telling of this story but in today's episode we will be reviewing some statements that have been
taken from the Arkansas state police files from their investigation into the murders of 16-year-old Don Henry and
17-year-old Kevin Ives this new investigation team has uphill battle because from the get-go it should have
been investigated as a homicide but it wasn't and then didn't do their due diligence and it was just investigated
as a traffic death correct and we even discussed items that they failed to collect at the scene that may have had
value towards pointing towards any kind of of evidence and before we get to the timeline we need to kind of discuss what
was going on in the drug community in this town cocaine and Other Drugs were flowing into the city of Little Rock
Arkansas and the smaller communities that surrounded it as well uh this is coming from Central America America via
the freeways that connected Miami Los Angeles and Dallas but they were coming in by all forms of transportation by the
time of 1987 the movers would Place cocaine on trains and it would be dropped at
designated drop spots this was also coming in by airplane as well and not too far from the tracks where the boys
were found there's an airport called the Mena airport and this was known by many
to be trafficking drugs planes were landing near near the airport under the cover of night without using their
lights they were Landing sitting briefly and taking off again without cutting off
their engines MH the state police was aware that this was going on so to combat this they started parking
Vehicles near the airport well the airplane started adjusting what they were doing they picked out different
locations and now rather than Landing they were just kind of buzzing the fields getting real low about 100t off
the ground and D dropping things from the planes obviously we have Kevin Ives and we have Don Henry those are the two
boys that were found on the tracks but now let's get into some of the other key players yes the first person that we
will introduce is a man by the name of Jeff rhods he's a young man that was interviewed by investigator Don Birdsong
and this is from the state police files birdsong's report this is with an interview with a young man that bird
song does not identify in his notes but his notes state that the Wednesday before the boys were killed someone had
contacted this man looking to buy an ounce of cocaine this being possibly RADS the buyer this guy was unable to
obtain the cocaine so he contacted Don Henry Don and Kevin met with the buyer and they said that they could get Coke
from Don's connections now this connection is not mentioned as well well and mind you that Don Henry was 16 years
old at this time in another interview with the State Police this is with Don Henry's sister Gayla Gayla stated that
Don had been at the home of a alleged drug dealer to purchase marijuana on the Thursday or Friday before he was killed
MH she had also heard Don say that he knew quote the ultimate dealer unquote he didn't give a name to this person but
he said that the dealer worked out of Little Rock Arkansas well we have evidence that the boys were smoking pot
so they got to get that from somebody M I've been on pot runs mhm right so you go into the house just because the guy
sells maybe all he does is sell pot but he might sell other things and another statement this is from Chris Ballard who
was at one time married to Don's sister he says that he saw Don on the Thursday before Don's death Don said that he was
going to steal some cocaine Chris also said that Don had mentioned something about this Tim guy working out of Little
Rock Arkansas in one of the investigators notes this is investigator Don bird song these were entered into
the file in the summer of 1989 and this is in regards to a conversation with a confidential informant stating that Don
and Kevin had overheard a phone call between the dealer and an unidentified individual about a large drug drop near
the area of the train tracks sergeant Barney Phillips interviewed a friend of Don and Kevin's and said that the night
that they had died he was at a party at a mobile home and the two of them dropped by before leaving this party he
said that they had told him that they were going to go get some cocaine so they could sell it and make a bunch of
money now let's introduce Keith Cony Keith Cony is a young man he's a an acquaintance of Don and Kevin Keith's
mother Betty Alexander reported to a drug task force officer that her son had told her that he knew something about
the IES and Henry deaths but he wouldn't explain to her what Now Keith would go on and tell his father and some of his
friends that he had been out that night with well andless you know not to interrupt but he was pretty close with
his mother mhm he was afraid to tell her correct yes like like severely afraid but in a moment and he I think he was
afraid to tell his father as well mhm wasn't like he just came out with this information old willy-nilly no he wasn't
just running around town telling anybody that would listen uh this was something
that he was it was burning inside of him but he was afraid to talk about it but I
also think possibly you know having been in that father role that if if my son you know my stepson would have said I
know something but I don't want to tell you I would have made him tell me you know because because I can't I can't try
to protect you if I don't I don't know what you know yeah yeah well Keith had told his father and he had told some
friends that he had been out that night with Don and Kevin this being the night of their deaths and he stated that they
were out near sh Road uh where they were approached by two police officers in a vehicle okay now at this time Keith is
on his motorcycle at this point and he states that he fled the scene and he believed that the boys were attacked and
possibly killed by those two police officers so so he saw them being attacked and he fled the attack yeah he
was he was hanging out with the two boys and as the officers approached he he took off he got out of there months
after having telling his father about the story involving the Police Keith con's mother Betty Alexander she's at
the local prison visiting her other son Eugene con now while she's there she meets a man by the name of Mike crook
Mike crook is a former former manager of GG's which is a nightclub on the county
line Mike had told Betty about a G's customer who frequented the club and an incident that the customer had said he
had seen at a small grocery store near shrob Road this is located in the general area of the train tracks where
the boys were found on the night of their deaths he was parked at the store close to the railroad tracks waiting for
his wife that's what this statement says there's actually another statement that
says he believed that his wife was was running around on him so he had parked there hoping to catch her in the act of
being with a boyfriend or being with another man could you imagine just sitting out in a parked dark car waiting
for your significant other to possibly be with somebody else I wouldn't waste my time yeah I think that's that's good
advice I wouldn't waste my time well while the man is there and crook will refer to this man as Jerry and he says
that Jerry saw three teenagers one of them was on a motorcycle and then he saw two officers arrive at the scene
these boys were there smoking pot is what he believed that they were doing so one could assume that that is Keith
Cooney on his motorcycle mhm and that is also Don and Kevin and they're all kind
of hanging out smoking a little pot yes yes crook would say that Jerry does not identify the boys by name but he did in
telling crook this story he did say I believe that two of those boys could have been the boys that were found that
night well right but this is just proving that his story makes a lot of sense with Keith's story mhm Jerry then
sees what he believes to be a police car pull-up and at this time he says that one of the boys hops on the motorcycle
and takes off now some kind of interaction goes badly between these police officers and the two remaining
boys and he sees that an altercation breaks out and during the course of this he basically says that he sees the
police officers beating the [ __ ] out of the remaining two boys and afterwards they throw the kids into the back of the
patrol car the man Jerry he tells crook this story back at GG's Nightclub at some point and after discussing the
story crook tells him you know what that's probably you're probably right those are probably the two boys that
were found that night and you really should report this now Jerry was a little hesitant to do so because he saw
police officers what he believed to be police officers you know abusing some citizens right
right and so he convinces Jerry to report this Jerry does go and report this situation to the Sheriff's Office
uh Jerry is immediately thrown in jail uh he's thrown in jail for back child support and they keep him in jail for
the mandatory sentence of 90 days that he was to serve after the 90 days this Jerry person immediately leaves town now
why do we keep referring to him as Jerry well it's because Crook in the statement
refused to name the guy right just stating that his name was Jerry and he looked he looked kind of Mexican was the
best description that he would give about regarding Jerry yeah well I think his real name was sketchy Jerry well
we're going to follow that up with another statement and this is from a man named Ronnie Godwin now Ronnie Godwin
according to his statement he had been at GG's nightclub uh for about three or 4 hours the night that the boys had
passed away this is a happening place he said that he had had seven or eight beers there before he left and he left
around midnight uh when he was driving home he was driving down Highway 5 he turned down County Line Road uh and then
he turned right on to 111 as he approached shrobe Road he saw an unmarked police car he said it was
either tan or gray but it had three antennas police hubc caps and spotlights on it uh instead of turning right on the
shrob road toward his home wait hold on which could be like a detective car yes you know CU a lot of times like we we
live in a pretty small town and when you see well well I do you live north but um
you grew up here and you know you see these cars you have your the police cruisers mhm and then sometimes you have
the sheriff cars or you have like maybe a chief of police car but then you also have these detective cars mhm they're
pretty easy to spot tinted windows a bunch of antennas yeah well after seeing the vehicle he decided to go straight to
avoid being noticed instead of turning towards going to his home he had been drinking obviously that night he said
seven or eight beers and he was concerned that he was going to get another DWI had they spotted him he
would eventually Park his car and shut off his lights but when he was near shrob Road dark Cano he saw two cops
with two boys uh his first thought was that the police may have caught some boys trying to
break into the store that was in the area one of the boys was described as being taller than the other and more
heavy set and this boy had light colored hair uh this boy had been shoved up against the phone booth by a larger cop
we can assume at this point the teenager that they're pushing up against this pole would be Don Henry mhm he during
this altercation he believes that he sees one of the teenagers being hit with something in the head and this was near
a phone booth so he wasn't certain if it would have been the receiver from the phone uh that would would have been from
the phone booth or if it would have been a larger item it's you know it's dark out he's got his lights off uh but he
sees the one boy being hit in the head and remember in the autopsy was the whole skull fractures and he also says
that he did not believe or did not see the boys to be resisting in any form that that these guys were just going
after these kids right these guys were just getting their ass kicked mhm the second boy he saw uh there was an
officer standing over the other teenage boy who was kneeling and on the ground but he had his head down and he couldn't
really make out whom the kid was after this all took place he said that he saw the two officers throw the boys into the
back seat of their vehicle he then sees one of the officers grab what he believes to be a rifle and throw it into
the car as well the officers then get into the vehicle and they take off he says that they make a turn and he
noticed that they went onto a road that that is a dead end uh he lost track of their lights so at some point he
believes that they may have turned off to the left he was obviously concerned about this situation uh and a bit scared
but he's still also watching out for himself he's still worried about that possible DWI right and so he decides
that since nobody noticed him there he knew that these officers would have to turn around at some point because it was
a dead end and he was worried that they could come out at any second so he decided to still lay low there and he
said it's probably about 15 or 20 minutes went by before he sees the vehicle drive by again he did not notice
if the boys were still in the vehicle at this point Ronnie Goodwin estimated that
all this took place around 2 or 2:30 a.m. then that night the night that the boys were found on the tracks right now
this is interesting here Captain we have a couple of stories that seem to be lining up with one another we have we
have their friend Keith Cooney who states that he left because police officers drove up scared him off and he
believed that there something happened between the police officers and the and the boys yeah at least a confrontation
mhm so we have that story then we have the unknown Jerry person mhm and then we have this Ron Goodwin come forward Shady
Jerry yeah yeah well the thing here is the state the state police officers uh during their investigation they believed
because this Ronnie Goodwin story was so similar to the story of this unknown Jerry person that get his name right
that had moved out of the area they believe that Jerry and Ronnie Godwin were one of the same and the thing here
is when they approached Crook and and they asked him you know here here's the guy that we believe this Jerry person is
can you confirm this or deny it he States very matter of factly this is not the person that I'm talking about this
is I I still refuse to give his name but this is not the person that that I was describing and a sense it's almost like
they're trying to minimize the idea that there was police officers involved you know I mean like well we got three
stories right now that they all kind of line up but uh we're we're thinking that
you know guy a and Guy C are the same so really only have two stories that line up or possibly it could be the exact
opposite though maybe they're trying to corroborate this Godwin story right and and and and just go to him and say okay
now we know you told somebody else about this and we believe you even more um I mean it really could go either way which
does make some sense because he was coming from the bar mhm so that would you know put two and two together yeah
there there's a lot of things that line up there but there's probably more than one person leaving that bar that night
correct yeah well now we have three stories so let's get to the fourth story this is going to come to us by Tom new
house not to be confused by Tom oldhouse but this is the guy that was hiding in the bushes Tom new house is not
introduced into this whole thing until around 1993 this is when a friend of Kevin IES
reaches out to Linda and he says that he knows a boy that's now 18 in 1993 uh that had seen some things that
took place that night and he wanted to put her in contact with this boy this boy didn't want to talk to anybody but
he thought that maybe if Linda talked to him that he would he would feel the urge
to come forward with this information having meeting one of the one of the victims so he puts the two of them in
touch together well meeting the victim's mother correct and so Tom Tom tells the
story that he is out the night that the boys are found and he was out with a couple of his friends they were out in
the area of the tracks and they were looking for marijuana plants and they were goofing around and just you know
just kind of being out in the middle of the night you know doing weird stuff well yeah well we kind of talked about
this like when we're kids the whole thing was especially around the summertime was you might if you could
camp out out in the backyard that you might go like do some pranks right you might toilet paper somebody's house you
might pee in somebody's mailbox stuff like that uh inappropriate not nice stuff but the the best was it's
good for the toilet paper manufacturers right right well good and bad cuz but uh
but it was always weird to me is like you'd be walking to the neighborhood and you might have a couple buddies with you
and then all of a sudden you see another group of people from your high school and they're out doing the same thing did
did that ever happen with you once happened once yeah but it like freaks you out so kind of similar thing where
you have this one group of boys out where we're not for sure what they're doing yet they claim that they're
hunting and then you got this other set of kids out and they're maybe looking for a pot just kind of looking around
yeah well and you know what happens Captain if you're out at night and you're a kid in the dark and you see
some lights headlights or a light turn on you you what do you do you duck and you hide and these kids Tom and these
other kids they see Tom would have been 12 at the time and they see a light and they decide to duck down and they're
going to kind of observe OB ve what's going on and they see three men on the tracks and he he very outwardly
describes these guys as men uh and during this time he also sees two other figures approaching now Tom and the
other kids they kind of move up and try to get a little closer to the situation to see what's going on now they're
intrigued right and he sees that the men are trying to engage the other two figures they're kind of calling out to
them and telling them to come over and talk to them this is the boy that we heard in the trailer correct yeah and he
says that the boys seem he describes these other two figures as as not grown men as possible teenagers he states that
the teenagers didn't seem to be they didn't want to go over and talk to the men they were very reluctant to do so at
some point though they get must have been convinced to do so because then they start walking over towards the men
now at this point Tom is ducking down and he's kind of hiding because he sees several flashlights at at the time and
he hears what he believes to be a gunshot go off like he said in the trailer he kind of looked away mhm and
then but he also saw the flash of the gun saw the flash of light now he cannot say whether that gunfire came from the
teenage boys or from the three men that he had already seen on the tracks what he does say though is as soon as they
hear that him and his friends decide to take off and flee the area well and the thing is that he recognizes one of the
guys on the tracks yes and and why does he recognize one of them well I he claims that his mother was seeing
attorney in town mhm and that attorney was on the train tracks and that man is Dan Harmon and where do we know that
name from Captain well he was the prosecutor that we had talked about in episode one uh that was involved in the
case of the death of the two boys so get your head around this right this is what
we're saying people this is why this case is mindblowing to me is that we have later years down years down the
line right mhm in 1993 this stuff comes out but years earlier we have two boys that you know mysteriously die on train
tracks they think it's a a traffic accident and then they bring it to a grand jury and that's brought by this
guy Dan Dan Harmon and he is the the lead prosecutor and he's the one that's in charge of all the evidence and
collecting all the evidence and getting his hands wherever and years later comes
out that oh he might have been on those tracks we have an eyewitness that states
that it was in fact Dan Harmon that he could identify it positively identify him as Dan Harmon because he knew Dan
Harmon he had some he had a relationship with him the man dated his mother and we
also have another eyewitness that points to Dan as well yeah and we're going to get to her right after this quick beer
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[Music] today all right we're back and I know the story just took a bit of a Twist
there at the last part but yeah it did we're going to add to that twist a little bit by introducing a person by
the name of Charlene Wilson um now this woman she's in her 30s and she was known
to be popular around town uh but this is this would take place years after the investigation into the deaths of the
boys and this is during an investigation regarding criminal charges in an unrelated case uh Charlene Wilson
testified in front of a grand jury to amongst other things but the important thing here to our case is that amongst
those other things she testified that she had dated Dan Harmon for some time now this would have taken place in 1987
right the same year as the deaths right and to call a female popular let's just go ahead and put it on the table Dan
Harmon was also considered popular yes yes he was and uh during this time Dan Harmon he was married um and she said
that dated probably seven or eight times during the course of that year but the two of them had snorted cocaine on
several of those occasions right so Not only was Dan Harmon popular but he was also what I'd like to call
[ __ ] yeah because you can't you can't have a girlfriend when you're married or
you shouldn't have a girlfriend when you're married well the big deal here Captain is that not only does she say
these things but let's keep in mind she's testifying to this to these statements in front of a grand jury so
this is a big deal this is not like you just said it to some news reporter or somebody on the street no this is now
opening up a line of questioning that is probably going to open up to a line of Investigation about the person that
you're talking about by saying that the prosecutor somebody that has been a prosecutor was known to be using illegal
drugs during the course of of his tenure yeah Dan is basically a Coco and this is
going to lead us to a lot of the other questions regarding Dan Harmon now the police get involved here because after
this statement in front of the grand jury they want to know more about not only Dan's drug use but also this
witness's drug use and they also want to know what else she may know about things
that were going on in the area around 1987 and 1988 so when they question Charlene Wilson they start off by
providing her with two prepared questionnaires um and one of them is more directed toward Dan Harmon and the
other is more directed towards the deaths of Kevin and Dawn now I'm going to read these for you uh the first one
starts off by asking tell us about your drug dealings with Dan Harmon and Charlene responds he kept me high a lot
on occasion I would make specific drops to different areas for him I got high with him a lot the next question is if
you were going to conduct an investigation on Harmon how would you do it she states that she would go to his
ex-wife Rebecca then he would then she would check his money background with a fine- tooth comb mhm she then
recommended going through drug task force records to see who they may have led off during his time when he was in
power as well as payoffs and Drug trades and things of that nature mhm they asked
her to list the five most important causes that would have led Dan Harmon selling drugs and using drugs drugs she
states that it would be his family history also letting people go that had enough money to buy him off would have
led to his drug use uh drugs being confiscated but not actually being reported would be things that he might
have been using or selling right and by letting big-time dealers off for free she also stated that it's common
knowledge of his drug use and that been common knowledge amongst many people in his Circle for years they asked her to
write in detail One Drug deal that that she had conducted with Dan Harmon now now this is going to be a little
difficult because like she said I mean she was high a lot of the time yes and I imagine that there were probably more
than one drug dealings that she was involved with with Dan Haron but she's going to give the answer to one of those
and the one that she states is one that took place at a place called Lee beastro
club uh she says Dan Harmon was there as well as Roger Clinton and herself she said that this took place on a weekend
night and that they had met there in a parking lot and did a cocaine exchange the next question she's asked
do you know who else deals drugs with Dan Harmon and now they've they've pulled this information from this
questionnaire because she's naming other people here but she does name at least four other men the next question is
while filling out this form what were your emotions and she states that she was scared but she was also ready to
come clean she's worried about what Dan may find out that she is saying about him now in the second question there as
I said is more related to the deaths of the boys and it starts off by saying tell us what you know about the
circumstances that might have led to the deaths of Don Henry and Kevin IES she states that she feels that Dan Harmon
has more knowledge of the two boys' deaths than he has ever told in late summer in in August she says that she
drove with Harmon to Alexander to meet with she she assumes a man named Keith mccal to make a pickup now she says this
would have been around the time of the two boys' deaths they asked her to write in detail
what happened on August 22nd 1987 from the time that she got up until the time she went to bed that evening she states
that she got up she did some coke and Crystal mixed I guess that she says that's called highballing uh she cleaned
up the house left and went off to find some more drugs later that afternoon wanted to show her a house and they went
in his car and they looked at a house in Alexander when they came back to her house she said she ate something and put
on some makeup Dan then asked her to take a ride back out to Alexander with him and he asked her to pull down the
Old Quarry Road and she he told her to wait in the car he gets out and he leaves she states that she stayed in the
vehicle and she got high a while while she was waiting for him to come back she said he suddenly then comes back
shouting let's go they hop in the vehicle and they head back to her place and that's when she is told to take a
shower um he's she's asking him if there's anything wrong he's saying there's nothing wrong uh that they spent
some time together that evening he took a shower she went to bed and he left well he had to go back to his wife's
house well the final question on this questionnaire is they ask her do you have any reason to be afraid of
answering any of these questions and she states simply yes I do because Dan Harmon does not like me in
1993 this would be in May uh by this point Dan Harmon has been charged with some drug possession charges and he is
currently awaiting trial now I think I think some of this is going to come to light here Captain because I think that
at this point Charlene Wilson might feel that she might be safe from Dan Harmon because he's facing these charges and he
could potentially be going to prison right uh but in in an interview with the State Police Department she states that
she knows quite a bit more about the night that the boys were killed oh now it's getting kind of Juicy this is a
statement given to detective Brown Charlene said that she had been with Dan Harmon and Keith mcal the night that the
boys had been killed she went with them to the train tracks she said that when they arrived there were two other men
that were there as well but all these men seemed to be agitated because there was a small band of kids that had tried
to rip off the drop see now they were going there because there was going to be this drug drop they were expecting to
get 3 to four lounds of coke and 5 lbs of weed well and like we said there was Drops that were made from trains but
also possible that the planes would come in and stop in a field make a drop and then fly to the airport mhm now she said
that when the men got there they stumbled upon these boys that were apparently trying to rip them off MH and
what had happened was they chased after the boys and they got away now she said that they caught two of them and they
were brought back to the tracks this was Kevin Ives and Don Henry uh she said that when the boys arrived one of them
was already deceased at that point she then claimed that Keith mcal killed the other one no no no no no she's lying
she's lying that's not the whole story it's not the whole story but it's it's also not the end of the story so she
would actually give multiple confessions to what had happened to the boys of course she would so well we kind of see
it with that first part with the questionnaire right she kind of leads on that she and Dan Harmon know more about
the boy's death than what Dan Harmon is willing to admit that he knows and apparently is more than what she's
willing to admit to knowing during filling out that questionnaire now when she gives her second statement this to
detective Brown she now states that she one of the the boys is dead she knows exactly what happened to them one of the
boys is dead when she's at the tracks and the other boy is killed in front of her by Keith mccal well we see another
confession from her and one thing I do want to point out here though Captain is you know we've talked about this a lot
when we see multiple confessions from people usually the stories can trange change drastically that's not what takes
place with Charlene Wilson now with Charlene Wilson basically what I think we get captain is we I think we get the
story you know we get the tip of the iceberg with her with that questionnaire then we get pretty much the whole story
right she's filling Us in on more things now this this last let's call it confession it's basically the same story
as the second with one little twist in there okay okay and the twist being that she actually stabbed one of the boys I
knew it I knew it she said that she was quite high at the time um coked out of her mind she had been hanging out with
Dan Harmon most of the evening Coke and Fizz that's what they call it doing coke
and sex said she said that after the boys were attacked the one was already dead and the one was near death that the
the men that were there they were they were telling her to stab the boy well yeah because their thought process there
is if she is a right now she's just a witness mhm and she's basically a complice but she can get away with that
yeah but if she stabs one of the boys she's guilty then she's also a murderer yeah yeah and that's why they wanted her
to stab the other boy yeah she she would be guilty as a witness but now she's guilty as a as a conspirator to murder
mhm um so she does admit to stabbing one of the boys in the back um she does right right and we have the evidence of
the stab hole MH and so that's basically her confessions to to that evening well
that really to me we've pointed out quite a bit of other stories regarding that night that all kind of have some
loose parts to them but once you factor in Charlene Wilson's statement that she gives she's kind of the glue she's the
glue kind of binding everything together so I think we need to kind of using these stories we we should be able to
kind of walk through a timeline for the evening of August 23rd 1987 yeah I mean she's the glue that's made out of mainly
cocaine so we'll start off with the boys right Kevin Ives and Don Henry well we've pointed out that if if we take
into account everyone's statements that were given to the police and let's say we believe every statement that was
given to the police well this kind of points out that maybe the boys might not have been going out that night to
actually go hunting they might been involved in something else regardless they went out that night we know they
went out that night this would be between 12:30 and 1 a.m. they leave the house saying that they're going to go
hunting well we now have eyewitness accounts of other people being at the tracks that night yeah and so the
Assumption here is that Kevin and Don got this plan in their head that you know we buy pot and we don't have much
money but we know some guys that actually sell some stuff where we can make a bunch of money off of it so if we
could intercept one of these you know I'm not saying that these these kids wanted to try cocaine I'm saying that
it's probably more likely that they're like you know what if we could get some cocaine and we probably know some people
that would buy it we could make some quick cash M and we wouldn't even have to put any money up front because we're
just intercepting a drop yeah well I mean there's there's some proof that they might have been looking to purchase
cocaine or to to distribute it to other people to make some cash um and if that's if that in fact is true and and
they did stumble into a situation where they overhear this BigTime drug dealer that they keep referring to as talking
about a drop then maybe this is some kind of plan that they devised do you think the big- time drug dealer that
they were talking about was uh Dan yes I actually do um and whether they knew him by name or knew it to be
Dan Harman I don't know but I think that there might have been people that talked
about this big time drug Lord this big time Big Time play Big Time um the thing here is the the reason being is if if
he's at the drop I don't see why he's not the big time guy you know you know the way these things work you usually
have one it's like a pyramid scheme you have one guy that's doing pulling in a lot of the product he's Distributing it
to a couple people who distribute it to a few more people and the it gets bigger
as you go down the pyramid there and it spreads out the money and most of the money goes to the top there and and
we're talking about a drop if we believe Charlene Wilson here we're talking about
a drug drop of she says 3 to 4 pound of cocaine [ __ ] and 5 lbs of weed that sounds like a pretty decent drop to me
right I don't know much about drug drops drug drops raindrops drop tops but we also have Charlene Wilson statement
saying that she was at the tracks that night with Dan Harmon Keith mccal and a man by the name of Larry Rochelle now
who who are these other two guys so Keith mcal he is a local bartender he works at one of those places up by the
county line and he's he's a pretty well-known bartender as well he's he's a guy that's known to be a bit rough
around the edges he's known to be a drug user as well as a distributor he's also
a Burley guy right now I don't know much about this Larry Rochelle guy um but what I'm kind of assuming here Captain
is that I think this Keith mcal is involved with moving drugs for Dan Harmon and this Larry Rochelle is
probably involved in the same thing may be this Larry guy is Shady Jerry it's a possibility I mean like where he's like
uh who's who's your friend uh not not Larry Jerry yeah yeah but I don't think that Larry I don't think that Larry's
going to come forward and fess up to anything when he's involved in a murder or maybe a way to tell a story to
cover his own ass well we got to stay clear about this because now we have the two teenage boys we have Don and Kevin
at the tracks and we also have Dan Haron Keith mccal and Larry Rochelle now we know some of these players here because
we have two eyewitness statements we have Charlene Wilson stating that Dan Haron Keith mccal and Larry Roselle are
at the tracks we also have we also have Tom new house who's hiding in the bushes
nearby witnessing this event take place now there are some statements that say that that other boy that we talk about
later Keith Cooney might have been one of the boys in the bushes with Tom new house now the situation here is new
house Witnesses these guys interact with each other there seems to be some kind of disagreement he hears The Gunshot go
off and then the two teenagers flee at this same time we have Tom new house who flees as well shortly after that we have
Don Henry and Kevin Ives who are seen near the store near shrob road now this is with the uh Keith Cooney as well he
states that he was there with the boys right so we have Keith Cooney statement stating this and he says that two police
officers pull up and at this point that Keith takes off now we also have the other two
eyewitnesses this is your buddy Shady Jerry now he's there he says that he sees two police officers he also sees
one boy take off on a motorcycle and two remaining teenage boys we also have Ronnie Godwin story who basically says
about the same thing we have these two I witnesses that state that they see police officers beating up kids and
throwing them in the back of a vehicle MH now through these statements one thing that we learn we do learn who
these officers are because of descriptions given as well as names given during some of these statements
and these officers are Jay Campbell and Kirk Lane and they work for the palaski county sheriff's office so now we got
more we got more characters here well let's just stop right there right so you know look some sometimes I get you know
hate mail saying we don't need a recap hey sometimes we do there's a lot going on right now so here it is these boys go
out to the woods we're assuming that maybe instead of hunting that they're trying to get in on a drop so that they
possibly could get the drugs maybe sell the drugs who knows yeah they're going to do a Robin Hood move they they've
they've identified some bad guys they've found a way that they could make some money off of this they're going to
intercept these drugs and sell them off to their friends right and again there's
16 and 17 so I think some of it is just like you you make some weird decisions I
don't even want to say bad decisions you sometimes it's just a weird decision so
anyways they go out there there's some kind of Confrontation they jet they leave MH then they meet up
with their friends so now they're back at the store and there's three of them mhm and then guess who rolls up the
police officers now what we do know is if Dan Haron was there that you know he's a prosecutor or he becomes a
prosecutor after this event he knows people of power he's in a position of power and if he's the BigTime drug
dealer he is a position of power right and he probably has people working for him with within the system and out of
the system and so it's not like you know if these cops did what the eyewitnesses
claim that they did they were working for Dan Harmon yes you're exactly right and what what takes place here we don't
know we can't figure out if the police officers if these two Sheriff officers if they intended to kill the boys if
they were told to kill the boys but they were certainly told to go out and catch
these boys right you know go find these guys that that stumbled upon our our operation here and bring them back to me
you know they bring these boys back to the tracks and at that point this is where Charlene Wilson's statement
carries through stating that one of the boys was dead by that time probably the one that was you know beat in the face
yes he was he was hit in the face with with the either the gun or a telephone receiver or both and it could
have been as simple as the orders were bring these guys back to me and then when they tried to apprehend these boys
it got out of control because the boys knew what they're going to head back to right they're heading back to a a drug
boss and if you don't know much about it all you then would know is Hollywood mhm
so then you have to deal with the images of you have from Hollywood right so you'd be scared out
of your mind so you're going to fight for your life the boys are then brought back to the tracks and according to
Charlene Wilson that's when the second boy is killed um whether it be from Keith mccal or whether it be from her
stabbing him but then they place the boys on the tracks so that their bodies are destroyed and all the evidence would
be destroyed as well well that's five key players in this and I would I would say you know to me that all five of
those players are involved in the death yeah yeah right yeah yeah there there's some moving Parts here that that we
don't have um we don't have a solid statement that locks them into this timeline for the entirety of the
timeline because we have this Keith mcal he's a bit of a he's a bit of a rogue situation here right Captain we don't
know if he was actually at the tracks from the start to the finish of this because there is a statement that says
that Keith Cooney had went and and told Keith mccal what he had seen at the tracks and that he had fled from some
police officers and that mcal then went down to the railroad tracks the only person that states that mcal was there
is Wilson who says that she didn't see him until the time that the boys were brought back right so my question here
is I got a little bit of a question with this m mascal but you're exactly right these are the five key players but you
know did he only show up for the second portion of this mhm or or was he one of the three men that Tom new house saw on
the tracks because the situation I think is what what is more likely is that both
of those officers might have been there with this Larry Rochelle and Dan Harmon as a form of protection for this drop
you know maybe you leave one officer in the car because new house only saw three
guys on the tracks you leave one guy in the car to keep it as a lookout and the other officer walks along with you as a
form of protection that that's the only thing that makes sense to me other than maybe because they can't make a radio
call saying these two guys inter interrupted our our drop go catch our drug deal yeah our drug drop yeah right
so I don't know if I don't know if Keith mccal was actually involved in the murder or if he stumbled upon it later
and then was terrified because he was dealing drugs for Dan Harmon and didn't want to throw him under the bus because
Dan Harmon had a lot of a lot of stuff on him well on on top of that you just you have two dead bodies you're going to
go run in your mouth after you saw you know two dead bodies mhm so even if you didn't get there till after they're
dead then at that point you're you're maybe not talking because you're well he he wouldn't be talking if he's dealing
for Dan Harmon is my guess if he's working for Dan Harmon as a drug dealer right but some people are drug
dealers and not murderers right and that's that's why I'm I'm bringing Keith mcal because I don't I'm not convinced
that he was there for the actual murder of these boys I'm stating that it very clear he could have just stumbled upon
the end result while the men were still there and because he was dealing drugs for Dan Harmon and he was caught up in
this drug ring he didn't come forward with information well and maybe it sounds stupid you know
but you got five adults here got two teenage boys that like I said making a weird decision Maybe be a dumb decision
you know ultim ultimately they paid the price for it mhm you know we're going to
go out to the woods if it wasn't just for hunting if it was to disrupt a drug drop then that that's a very bad
decision you know yeah um if you're just going out and hunting wrong place at the
wrong time right mhm and uh you saw some things that you shouldn't have seen but
it seems like there's a lot of weight that they were planning to do this but they're teenage boys 16 and 17 years old
and you got these adults that are some in the system some out of the system they're just doing it for [ __ ] money
anyways right and so and and I and maybe these guys like I said there's a big difference between a drug dealer and a
murderer but then once these guys thought they were caught they had to do something about these
boys and they and they chose I think to murder them or knock them unconscious cuz the one that was beat in the face
could have you know you know drifted off into a coma for all we know and then they lay him on the tracks doesn't
matter that there's a train coming he's not waking up from that you know and they might not have been fully dead by
the time the trains hit them I I think it's most likely that they were but either way it's murder oh yeah yeah and
and I agree with you I think it's most likely that they were in fact dead when they were placed on the tracks
we have Wilson's statement Charlene Wilson's statement saying that she believed both boys to be dead when they
were placed on the tracks this also goes along with something we talked about in
the first episode with the EMTs what they what they thought about the blood as well as the train crew who were Avid
Hunters that when they saw the blood of these boys it was not bright red it was not flowing this Blood wasn't you know
it had they been killed while they were unconscious on the tracks their their heart would have been pumping seconds
before they were run over this would have caused the blood to flow this would have me more blood evidence everywhere
at that scene there was a lot less blood than anybody with a trained eye expected
to see and it also was not the color that they expected to see it was purplish and color it did not look to be
fresh blood right so we have these five adults but we also have these people like I said of power people that are in
the system and that's what's so crazy because then you know once they rule it accidental death which is probably ruled
to accidental death because of the people that Dan Harmon knew right and so they can get this ruling and then all of
a sudden when it when all this new information starts coming to light and we're going to bring it in front of
grand jury guess what lawyer volunteers his Services he rises to the occasion and he throws himself in the middle of
the investigation not only throws himself in there but he's going to be being the guy that's steering and
directing the grand jury and onp on top of that he has the power he's going to use the grand jury like his own set of
bodyguards he's going basically run a racketeering operation and a blackmailing operation through this
grand jury he can now subpoena whoever he wants in the area bring them in for questioning submit them to questions to
find out what they know what they do or don't know who they've talked to and he can he can sift through the dirt man he
can sift through the dirt and see what Rises to the top to find out what people know and maybe who he needs to shut up
right but who's this lawyer's name well this is Dan Harmon right right once a prosecutor twice a prosecutor but
clearly always a drug dealer and always a douche Cano and he's got two sheriffs at least two sheriffs that we know of
that are on the take he's got drug dealers working for him he's created his own little web his own little operation
and he's done it all under the watchful eye of of the local police well and I've
never heard of a story where okay one accidental death you know that's what it's they claim it's AEL Dental death oh
it's not now we got to bring it to trial who brings it to trial Dan Harmon years
later who's one of the number one suspects in the actual murder Dan Harmon M I've never heard of that ever I mean
it's freaking mind blowing and we're just getting we're just getting warmed up I mean I mean we should call all part
part three of four should just be called Death that's what it should be called yes we certainly got so much more to get
to we'll get to that next week we got more evidence we got more crimes being committed we're just getting started
right what's our recommended reading for the week recommended reading this week I'm excited about this one Captain it's
called Dark spell surviving the sentence uh this is by one of my favorite and I believe one of the very best True Crime
authors out there Mara ever in this story dark spell it's about Jason Baldwin most of you will know him from
the West Memphis 3 uh she's written about them before this is kind of continuing on in the case so if you're
like me and you always want to read more about the West Memphis 3 pick up dark spell surviving the sentence by Mara
Leverett you can do that by going to our website true Crim garage.com you click on the recommended page and you pick
things up through our Amazon banner and real quick before we go here Captain we have something to talk about regarding
iTunes in in the episodes we've had a little trouble okay so all we do is we we have a host and then our host sends
it to iTunes and sometimes it's just been coming up that there's an error sometimes we get it sometimes it's a
download error we're not really for sure all we can do is do a request sometimes
our host says oh well we did something wrong sometimes it's on iTunes in and it's it's very frustrating and it it
basically keeps me up a bunch of times but also every time that we add an episod episode mhm uh it knocks off uh
normally West Memphis 3 part one mhm and so I have to go back in and add it and sometimes I forget to so when it
disappears it's because I forgot to and just give me a day or so and I'll fix it
yeah the the pro we we apologize for the troubles and for the frustration but it's just equally as frustrating on our
end we are aware of the issue we've reported the issue many many times and it is in their hands now yeah and I like
to send them a bunch of video chat messages me just screaming I'm I'm going to put you in your face fix it fix it
now anyways thanks for sharing every time somebody shares it on social media just it fills my heart an angel gets its
wings my my heart gets all gooey all right much love to you and until next week be good be kind and don't
litter [Music] [Applause] [Music] you can live out your Master Chef dreams when you find a professional on Angie to
tackle your dream kitchen remodel connect with skilled professionals to get all your home
projects done well visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that

Boys On the Tracks /// Part 2 /// 94

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By all accounts, the engineer did a masterful job of bringing his train to a stop. It had taken a screaming, screeching half mile. By the time the engine shuddered to a standstill, Conductor Jerry Tomlin was on the radio notifying an approaching train on a parallel track to stop because some boys had been run over. He also called the dispatcher. "Have you got injuries?" The dispatcher asked. "No," Tomlin said. "We've got death." -From "The Boys on the Tracks" by Mara LeverittTonight we discuss the case that many wanted to keep quiet. Two teenagers are run over by a train in the middle of the night. Was it an accident, a double suicide or a double murder? Join us in the garage for the tragic story of the boys on the tracks.

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the 1987 deaths of two boys in Arkansas, revealing police misconduct and drug trafficking connections.

Key points

The Boys on the Tracks Case. In 1987, two boys were found dead on train tracks, leading to a controversial investigation.
Changing the Cause of Death. A grand jury re-evaluates the case, suggesting a possible homicide instead of an accident.
Witness Accounts of Police Interaction. Witnesses report seeing police officers involved in a violent altercation with the boys.
Witness Accounts Align. Multiple stories from witnesses begin to converge, raising questions about police involvement.
Charlene Wilson's Testimony. Charlene Wilson reveals her past with Dan Harmon and his drug use, hinting at deeper connections to the case.
Shocking Confession. Charlene claims to have witnessed the events leading to the boys' deaths, implicating Dan Harmon.

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