James Byrd Jr. /// Part 1 /// 163 | Forensic Files

when it comes to Quality sleep Ashley has you covered with top mattress brands at winning prices and with special
financing options available you can snooze now and pay later plus your mattress purchase helps give the gift of
better sleep to children in need and US Special Operations forces visit your local Ashley store or shop online today
and make every snooze count financing is subject to credit approval C store or ashley.com for d details canva presents
a true crime of design in the office Maya spots something unusual in the presentation what's this it was an
off-brand font her coworker explains I added the font I thought it was fun it was not Maya solved it with canva open
up canva one click and the font is on brand easy stay on brand and solve font crimes at canva.com the home for every
brand [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] never [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever
you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me each week is a guy who knows
that every fight is a food fight when you are cannibal he is the captain it's good to see you Clarice it's good to be
seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening and thanks for telling a [Music]
friend today we are drinking circus City IPA by Big Top Brewing Company garage grade 3 and 3/4 bottle caps out of five
hoppy mty and smooth and I would say a little sweet as well it's like a circus in your mouth 6.8 ABV check out big top
Brewing because they are Brewing some damn good beers and this fantastic Brew was brought to us by this crazy crew
first up a big thank you to Carrie and Royal Oak Michigan and a big shout out to Paige from zionville Indiana also we
have Amy from Reno Nevada also in Reno we have a shout out to Alex and a big we like your jib to Aaron and lions
Colorado next we have Mike and Chicago who says thanks guys for saving the world one garage at a time chicag and
last but not least we have Terry Anne in Sunnyside Washington so thanks to everybody for filling up the fridge for
this week's show if you want to help us out with next week's Beer Run go to True
Crim garage.com and click on the Donate button and if you would like a we like your jib shirt we have them in a a
T-shirt and a tank top you can get those now but that's a limited number and they're almost sold out so get to the
website we only have three of them two and a half we're selling two and a half just sold one but lucky for you guys we
just sold one of the half ones so there's two left so go to True Crime garage.com Check out the store Page and
check out our blog and if you want to follow on social media we are at True Crime garage that's enough of the
business Captain everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some
true [Music] crime [Music] hot Sunday morning 98 the 7th of June in Jasper Texas after breakfast people W to
work or the church to hit a pastor's message on a road called Huff Creek found it tough to speak cuz what they
saw left them gasping and breathless the broken body of bird and sure you probably heard the story it's rather
gory and if you follow the word words you can somewhat get a picture but can you really picture been chained up into
a pickup truck and Drug into the street RI your arm off and decapitate you and the ones who perpetrated this act for
the simple fact that you were black they had to hate you mad at nature cuz she made you beautiful and that's
irrefutable like the fact the crack Street Pharmaceuticals is genocide to blacks and although this attack on birds
left the whole world Disturbed a few years back it was common and not unusual for other brothers to get done like that
and the irony of it all y'all was bird was often heard saying that he would put Jasper Texas on the map but Jasper Texas
put him on the map figuratively and literally in spite the insanity of This calamity his family refused to respond
bitterly and considering the circumstances what riddles me is we rally to save The Killers but who rally
to save bird this week's case takes place back in 1998 in the small town of Jasper the
city's website says Jasper is located in deep east Texas so Jasper is about 130 mil Northeast east of the city of
Houston and it's pretty close to the Louisiana border the town is named after William Jasper a war hero from the
American Revolution he was killed when attempting to plant the American flag at the storming of Savannah in
1779 the town is only about 10 square miles and back in 1998 about 8,000 people lived there Jasper calls itself
The Jewel of the forest James Bird Jr was born in bont Texas back in 1949 so in 1998 bird was 49 years old
James was part of a large family um including James there were nine kids in his family and James Bird Jr was named
after his father in 1967 bird was in the last segregated class to graduate from Jasper High
School uh before it was consolid validated with Jasper High as part of the desegregation plan he married in
1970 he had three children uh his children's names were Renee Ross and Jamie so two girls and one boy uh before
divorcing in 1993 between 1969 and 1996 James bird was incarcerated a couple of times for various smalltime
offenses including theft forgery and violation of parole James bird was described as a fixture in Jasper someone
that most people of the Town knew either by name or because he often could be seen walking around the town James Bird
he did not drive because of a disability he suffered from seizures which would not allow him to operate a vehicle yeah
and I think every town has the Walker or the runner or the bicycle guy yeah we had uh in our small town grown up there
was was the it wasn't a tricycle but it was like a it was adult tricycle well it's it's technically a tricycle even
though it's made for fully grown person it wasn't like a big wheel was was this a basket and a flag in every I mean the
fully outfitted tricycle yeah that was the guy in our town growing up he was like everywhere and when I lived in
Richmond Indiana we had the runner it was just this guy that just ran everywhere like super fast and then when
when he was at like a traffic light waiting to cross the street he'd still run in place it was like probably in the
best shape of anybody in the history of the world now I live in North Columbus so a lot more people so a lot more
Runners there's not just the one Runner guy there's not just the you know the one Walker guy uh there's Bunches of
them however there's a couple of what I would call quote unquote bicycle guys and there's one guy that I've learned a
tendency that he has like he doesn't because the Sidewalk Ends does not mean that's where he's going to stop
so he will he will like pull up and he'll he'll keep going just past the curb and so he's out in the street um
you know just partially out into the street so when people are driving when I'm riding shotgun and I see that
bicycle guy I have to point out like be careful if you're going to turn here because he will in the street yeah and I
don't think he knows any better not to get hit by the car that's that's approaching well and bringing this up is
just to prove the point that a town can really know somebody uh or somebody could be very popular in the town just
because he's known as oh that James Bird he's the guy you always see out walking
right right yeah yeah and that's how that's how he was I mean he became a fixture of Jasper people either knew him
by name or they knew him from seeing him out walking around and he was known as like a happy dude he's a happy guy uh
known as a musician and singer James played the piano at church when he was growing up uh he played the trumpet in
school and as an adult he loved to attend parties where he would often sing in front of small crowds at these
parties he fancied himself like a like an Al Green type singer mhm and several people say purple rain must have been
one of James bird's favorite songs because he was always singing it uh so known as a a music man and for his
singing and dancing it's a great song it's one of my bar songs like to put it on mhm you know cuz it's a little sad
you know it kind of brings down the party and it's fun also to look around at the seea of people wondering who put
this song on well and if you play it late enough a lot of people start singing along to that song no I like to
play it at like 9: okay like where everybody's like what this is too early early this we're not ready for yet this
is like 4 hours too early so back in 1998 James Bird Jr would have been 49 years old and as we said Captain he's
like a man about town you know he's the guy that everybody would have known him by name or by seeing him around town and
happy guy good-natured guy very sociable very sociable I that that's the exact phrase that we should have used right
there well and he comes from a very small town but he also comes from a big family so let's listen to a clip of his
mother Stella talking about James he he was uh you know he was Ry and so he's missed very much just we haven't had any
more family reunions because just a part of just missing I guess it always uh would be like that just had two
boys and all rest of girls and so he was the third child and the girls and most all all
just looked up to him for different things cuz he was the big brother over the sisters and he would just keep your life
and you just he just likeed peoples and most musicians whether I mean not all musicians like people uh but no some
lock themselves in closets yes I've been known to do that um but you become social and you get you get good at
social skills you know so there's a lot of times that if there's a big crowd of people some people will come up to me
and say hey you're pretty good at this it's like but but I've been doing it forever MH so you you play your set and
then in between your sets you're you're mingling with people shaking hands and and having some drinks so he James very
active with his family you know a good Big Brother very you know stayed close with his parents and with with his uh
siblings and like you hear his mother saying you know he just liked people he liked he liked everyone um and and I
think happy go-lucky kind of dude uh he he was a musician that still had some Big Dreams and some pretty big goals and
even though he was 49 it was almost like um he didn't let that block his vision or block his goals he would always state
that he was going to put Jasper Texas on the map and doing so through his music now we have to talk about some other
guys here unfortunately but we could not tell the whole story without introducing
some guys and giving a little background first we have Shan Allen Barry born February 12th 1975 so in 1998 he would
be 23 years old and we have an old friend of his John William King John William King went by Bill so to make it
easy on me that's that's what I'll call him so Bill king would have been 20 23 years old as well in '98 bill as a child
he was diagnosed as uh manic depressive uh by 98 these two had known each other for over well for about 10
years in fact they went to school together so this is a lengthy uh friendship between these two so Shawn
Barry his father died when he was just a kid and he dropped out of school in the
eth grade it's believed that about this time that he went and he was living somewhat on the streets uh he wasn't
close to his mother uh so we after we see his father passing away we see his family life just I mean fall gone it's
just gone we have Bill King who dropped out of school in the 10th grade uh the two actually got into trouble together
in 1991 the two broke into a warehouse they were caught and they were sent to a boot camp Camp style to be um sent off
to this boot camp type of thing to be reformed both completed this boot camp both received probation afterwards Jerry
Springer style right yeah yeah so Shawn Barry he had little to no trouble with following the rules and doing what was
expected of him while on probation Bill King well not so much Bill King violated
his probation he gets caught with drugs and so so he so he ends up in prison and
Bill is the one that was diagnosed with manic depression correct so maybe possibly self-medicating to the drugs um
yeah yeah very likely Bill gets caught with these drugs he goes to prison and while he's in prison he met this guy
named Lawrence Russell Brewer he just goes by Russell okay so Russell Brewer is about 8 years older than Bill mhm
Brewer is one of these always in and out of prison kind of dudes you know so a a
real winner MH um Brewer had been in and out of prison for a little more than 10
years he had served a prison sentence for drug possession and burglary he was pered in
1991 uh after violating his parole conditions in 1994 Brewer was returned to prison according to Brewer while he
was in prison he joined a white supremist gang with Bill King in order to safeguard himself from other
inmates Brewer and king became friends in the uh what's called the Beto Unit Prison this is this is supposed to be a
pretty um it's rumored to be a very tough prison right you see this a lot in Hollywood movies where if if you ever
watch American his History X for example but where you you have to team up with somebody mhm uh and so that's kind of
what his Cop Out is is well we only teamed up with the white supremacist for protection yeah I mean there's no secret
that there's the white gang and there's the Latino gang and there's the African-American gang um so yeah he's
he's teaming up or getting involved in this group to you know to protect himself is what
he claims right now Bill King claimed that he had been gang raped in prison uh at some point during his stay by
African-American inmates so is this before or after he joined the white supremacist all right this is going to
sound crazy but I came across this newspaper article and I have to talk about this to kind of because you know
when we research these cases you take in a lot of information and if sometimes if
you don't if you don't push that information out it gets stuck with you and it stays with you and I don't know
how the Washington Post knows this information but today you're going to be my you're going to be my therapist and
I'm going to lay this on you so I don't have to carry it around with there's not
enough booze in this garage so according to the Washington Post article that I read last night MH the way that this
went down is Bill King he would have been fairly Young when he entered the prison system okay uh he was a smaller
dude like about 140 uh 140 lbs according to this Washington Post article what they say in this article is
that the the inmates had managed to kind of divvy themselves up like you had said
into their different gangs and they kind of occupied different portions of the prison um not really segregated but kind
of self-segregation uh people staying away from one another if that makes sense MH
okay so there was an area that was predominantly African-American um and according to the
article it's African-American gang um area in this prison the white supremist group had some kind of involvement with
the guards or some form of relationship with the guards that they were able to manipulate the system when a when a
young white guy small white white guy like Bill King came into the prison right [ __ ] loser they would they would
influence the guards in some way that they could put that young man with either the Latino gang area or the
African-American gang area right probably hand jobs and cigarettes uh I I don't I I don't know how it came about
but this is according to the Washington Post M this could all be complete [ __ ] for all I know because it's
it's it's a strange story it's it's like a double crossed weird psychological story here so the white supremist put
this young white dude with a different group with the African-American group with the with the purpose that he would
be abused in some fashion by these guys and that would influence him to come running to want to join their silly
little club that they have right according to the Washington Post that's how this whole thing went down so it
would have been he would have been attacked uh and according to the article it was multiple times and then
eventually he ended up with this white supremist group all right so what happens next with these uh losers U
could would you mind terribly if we circled the wagons back there and and talked about that newspaper article uh
the reason being is that the reason why I kept saying according to the Washington Post it's a horrific story
but you know you referenced Hollywood movies earlier and how they portray prison and it sounds to me like a very
kind of Hollywood version of what could be going on in this prison I'm not saying that none of this stuff happened
right but what I'm what I question when I read that article is where are they getting this information from because I
don't know who out of any of those groups that were mentioned in the article that would come forward with
that information right and maybe they're getting this from Bill King himself and
if so it's you know it's just an excuse as all it is but well I get I get that it's an excuse and maybe it did come
from Bill King but then isn't that like because Bill King is like a he's proud to be a racist and he's proud to be in
this white supremist group right okay but this group according to the story double crossed you and made you a victim
so that you would join their group it seems like the last group you would want to join if that's how they create their
members yeah but he's he's a [ __ ] he needed somebody to protect him no no no no I I get that portion of it what I'm
saying is that that I I don't trust the story because I don't know how they would have got this information because
no matter who would tell you this story out of any of those groups they're putting themselves in a horrible light
you know what I mean they're putting themselves as being the bad guy there is no good guy in that story so where did I
don't know where they got the information well right and I think even talking about it more than we should is
is giving some uh you know justification for for him to think these horrible thoughts and to be a racist so
while in prison both Brewer and King they got in this white supremist group uh while still locked up Bill King
started to write letters to his old buddy sha Barry who was on the outside as they say in these letters Bill used a
lot of prison slang some that Shawn Barry says he was familiar with and some that he was not but in these letters
that Shawn would sha this is where Shawn would learn of what he calls a change in
his longtime friend uh Bill's Behavior Bill started talking about his white supremacy uh Bill spoke of his hatred
for African-Americans and Jewish people Shan said that bill sent him four letters while he was in prison and he
would end up he would end these letters by referring to Shawn Barry as his Aryan
brother M and I thought you were going to say he like you know did some kissy faces or something well this this one
seems silly he he would also say things like like uh stay white so yeah I felt sorry I know this
is not really a case where we should be laughing but but I mean dork hey stay white seems like a dorky thing to say
stay stay white U I woke up today and again I'm white you know stay white Sean Sean says that he didn't care much for
that kind of talk uh stating that he did not write uh back to Bill King he didn't
send Bill King any return letters he didn't do any kissy faces or yeah send a send an or stay white stay white back at
you back at reply with an update regarding his whiteness um eventually Bill gets out of prison and he goes back
to Jasper Texas MH and when he returns he starts hanging out with his old buddy Shawn Barry this is another weird thing
it's like okay you got this guy writing you all these letters saying all these things that you don't care for yet when
he returns to town you're like hey how's it going let's hang out it's just another excuse and a horrible um trying
to explain away what you what you are so sha Barry says that once bill got back uh he made it bill made it pretty well
known that he did not like African-Americans Jewish people or Asian asan people Bill King was also sporting
it seems like his hatred keeps growing well his now he hates Asians his possible uh friendship pool just got a
lot smaller right so Bill King is also sporting some racist tattoos as well I'm sure those look amazing and I
are they on his face you can no no they're on mostly like his chest and arms and some on his back and you can
find them online um no nobody needs to see there's a there's a lot of pictures of them I don't care really to describe
them here but then eventually Lawrence Russell Brewer uh Russell Brewer gets out of prison and he goes to Jasper as
well so now we have the Jasper 3 so by now it's almost the middle of the year of
1998 um we as we said Brewer 2 Brewer is covered in these racist tattoos as as well on the face um not on the face so I
mean if you if you're going to go for it you know put it right on the face if you're going to be an idiot just put it
right on your face yeah I mean so by June of 1998 these three guys are sharing an apartment Shawn Barry Bill
King and Russell Brewer and this goes down like this so it's it's technically Bill King's
apartment okay sha Barry had a girlfriend that he at this time would have uh had at least one child with
maybe two but I think it was one of those one you know has one kid and one on the way situation mhm Shawn and his
lady friend were having some trouble and they were on the outs so Shawn goes to stay with Bill King Shawn Barry at this
time is working as a manager at a movie theater then we have Russell Brewer he is just fresh out of prison it's like
the the last week or second to last week of May that he got out of prison and he
headed out to Jasper to catch up with Bill King and stay there with him for a while now Bill King wants to organize a
white supremacy chapter or group in Jasper Texas this is the Texas Rebels Soldier
division of the Confederate Knights of America and Russell Brewer is going to be the first member or hold a high rank
I'm not really sure how that stuff works it sounds like these three idiots living
together in this apartment it's pretty much like a loud drunk thre man party every night because at some point the
land lady had got sick of the noise in the late drunken nights and Bill King was facing an eviction from his
apartment let's get right back to The James Bird case right after this quick beer
break this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays maybe
you struggle with seasonal Blues this time of year can be a lot and it's natural to feel some sadness or even
anxiety about it but adding something new and positive to your life can counteract some of those feelings
therapy can be a bright spot something to look forward to to make you feel grounded and to give you the tools to
manage everything going on if you're thinking of starting therapy give Better Health help a try it's entirely online
designed to be convenient flexible and suited to your schedule just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with
a licensed therapist and switch therapist at any time for no additional charge find your bright spot this season
with better help visit betterhelp.com garag toay to get 10% off your first month that's betterhelp
hp.com garage canva presents a true True Crime of design in the office Maya spots
something unusual in the presentation what's this it was an off-brand font her coworker explains I added the font I
thought it was fun it was not Maya solved it with canva open up canva one click and the font is on brand easy stay
on brand and solve font crimes at canva.com the home for every [Music] brand Rosetta Stone is the language
learning program with a lasting impact I've been using the rap to learn French and it's not just about memorizing words
but actually having real conversations and it's not just French they offer 25 languages right now Rosetta Stone has an
awesome holiday deal 50% off their lifetime membership every language unlimited access forever for anyone keen
on diving deep into a new language check out rosettastone.com it's a game changer
all right cheers mates on Saturday June 6th 1998 James Bird Jr he spent the day drinking and socializing with friends
and family in Jasper Texas he was at his niece's bridal shower this celebration was being held at Bird's parents house
after the bridal shower James walked to a friend's house for an anniversary party so this is a good Saturday Captain
a long day filled with three of my favorite things Friends food and drinks mhm and at the party James was just
being James you know he was seen laughing and joking around with everyone singing and dancing he sounds like a
good timing man that you know happy go-lucky and ready to put everyone in a good mood yeah one thing that a lot of
people don't know about the colonel is the colonel likes to dance after a couple
drinks do the old Colonel Shuffle um so so his friends so his at his friend's home this would have been across town
from James's apartment it sounds like he would have left his friend's house quite
late that night there's some varied accounts of what time this would have been but it was it was late sometime
after 1:00 a.m. you know so we have people who've been partying all day there's no wonder that there's a little
bit of a question as to what time Mr bird left the party now roughly at about the same time we have Bill King Russell
Brewer and Shawn Barry they had spent the evening at a party as well but not any of the same parties as James Bird
right I'm not really sure how these guys are getting invited to a party but anyway that's that's what they were
doing so apparently they left this party uh because a young African-American woman arrived at that same party and and
this it's reported that bill and Russell got upset at seeing the new guest at the
party and became enraged angered and very loud uh so they probably stormed out of this party from there they spent
some time drinking and driving so Shawn Barry had an old gray pickup truck and they were driving around in his pickup
truck drinking beers and you know looking to pick up women I guess yeah and probably holding hands and stuff so
James Bird left and he's going to be walking home and now we have these three guys driving around in the pickup truck
drinking their beers somewhere along James's walk home a truck with these three guys in it pulls up and they offer
him a ride so from my understanding having never been there but the way that I believe Jasper is laid out is that you
have um the east side and the west side which is divided by Highway 96 and remember we said he was James bird was
at an event taking place on one side of town and across the other side of town was his apartment so at some point James
had to walk along Highway 96 to get to his apartment mhm that's where he encountered Shawn Barry Bill King and
Russell Brewer in the primer gray pickup truck right and this is not a good thing
I mean this is not going to be good for James Bird because one he doesn't know that he's getting offered a ride by
three white supremacists he doesn't know that these white supremacists were at some party and left because a a black
woman showed up yeah he doesn't know who who he's getting in the truck with they
offer him a ride James Bird accepts the offer and as you said Captain he gets in
the truck with Bill King Russell Brewer and Shawn Barry now Bill King and and not Russell but Shawn Barry Shawn Barry
they are from Jasper yes so there's very good chance that they know who James bird is or at least know him as oh this
is the guy that you see walking a lot very likely they have seen him before now about 7 a.m. on Sunday June
7th a call goes out to police there is a body that has been found in the road near a cemetery the early belief was
this was a hit and run type situation the responding officer quickly noticed dark marks on the road as he got near
the location of where the body was found the officer this is uh Sheriff rolls mhm
he says he followed that Mark for the entirety of the crime scene thinking you know while he's checking this out he's
thinking to himself this is going to be the easiest hit and run case that we have ever had because he was going to be
able to follow what he believed to be tire marks all the way to the guilty party's house or to at least the
location of the vehicle that was involved the officer had followed the tracks for about two miles he and the
other officer started to notice that this was not tire marks like they had thought this was a brown what they refer
to as a brown like substance when they got to the end of the March the officers found shoes a tank top dentures and a
billfold in the billfold they found the ID card of one James Bird Jr Sheriff rolls is pretty he's now pretty aware
that this is not a hit and run mhm uh that he is dealing with this is a murder case um and the victim had been he could
tell by what he was seeing captain that because the original thought is that whoever the victim was which turns out
to be James Bird right he would maybe he was crossing the street and somebody didn't see him they hit him and the
Damage Done to the body that they found would have occurred being having rolling
underneath the vehicle as it passed over top of him right or you've seen cases um
with you know even like um state troopers or Highway Patrol where they get hit by a car but they actually get
locked into that car and and and they're dragged for a little bit Yeah well but but their initial thought is that that
this person was run over there was initial damage from being rolled underneath the vehicle as the vehicle
passed over them and then left the remains there right however as they're following these tracks and as they're
starting to piece this thing together they're finding evidence that it's that it is this person was dragged they
weren't they weren't hit and then and then the person took off right they're seeing evidence that this person had
actually been pulled behind a vehicle and dragged to death along this stretch of road while they are checking out the
items uh that they have located all of which they believe to belong to the victim a woman comes forward at and
tells the sheriff and his officer that she has found a head in an arm near her home mhm so the head and arm were found
about 1 mile from where the Torso was located the head was in such bad condition and so destroyed from the
dragging that they had to use fingerprints to identify the body and after checking the fingerprints they
confirmed that this is this was in fact the body of 49-year-old James Bird Jr so
the law enforcement's going to find some items from James Bird bir they're also going to find some other items yeah this
is at a small clearing in in the woods um which is just right off of off of the road if anybody's watched any videos or
seen uh the the road that was traveled in Jasper Texas I mean there's trees along both sides of the road this is a
small thin country road that we're talking about here but in a small clearing the investigators uh believe
that there was a fight in this clearing because of upturn grass Disturbed dirt and broken beer bottles so they are
seeing signs of what they believe to be a struggle in the clearing the investigators also found several items
so this is evidence and this evidence includes cigarette butts uh the beer bottles like we had said a wrench with
the word Berry inscribed on it we also have a lighter that's inscribed with the word posum in some kind of KKK
symbol they also found some eyewitnesses so Witnesses came forward reporting having having seen James Bird
Jr riding in the bed of a gray or light colored pickup truck with two or three men in the cab between 230 and 245 a.m.
this is some stuff that I love here Captain here is some small town good oldfashioned police work an officer
tells the sheriff hey Shawn Barry has a light gray colored pickup truck right well they
found you know they have the wrench with the word Berry on it they have witnesses
seeing a light colored pickup truck this is just when when you live in a small town like this like you said most people
knew James bird from having seen him walking a lot of people knew each other everybody kind of knows what's going on
you find a couple couple Clues you put two and two together and you got somebody to talk to right away right
again Jasper is a town of maybe 10 miles yeah and then when you have a crime that
you know that whatever went down is one of the most horrific crimes maybe ever uh definitely ever in Jasper as law
enforcement I think your your initial fear is that you need to have this solved and quickly uh fortunately for
them there is a bunch of evidence that is left now uh talking about you know good oldfashioned police work we have
Sheriff rolls he's the one that's heading the investigation and you talked about it being a small town and one of
the worst murders ever I don't know how many years as Sheriff rolls had under his belt by 98 he comes off in in
interviews that I've seen with him as a pretty seasoned um police officer a pretty seasoned Sheriff
uh and investigator at that as well but in one interview you know he's asked is is this the most horrific murder you've
ever seen and he said well you know in my time in Jasper first of all every murder is
horrific however in his time he had only worked two murder cases up to this point
right and he said if I had to pick the murder of James Bird Jr would be the worst one that I've ever seen so well
easily for him but like I said I mean I think it not that it goes past those boundaries that it goes past the the the
city limits of Jasper I I get you I get you so we have this officer that brings up that information to the sheriff we
have Shawn Barry he has a light gray colored truck so they go pick up Shawn Barry that afternoon that's right they
find the Vic at approximately 7 a.m. on that Sunday and it's by that afternoon that that they've picked up a guy and
they're already hitting him with some hard questions they actually arrest him on some type of traffic violations he
must have had outstanding speeding tickets or parking tickets God knows what but they pick him up on these
traffic violations then according to the police well he had an outstanding warrant for being a
douchebag uh ACC according to the police they got some info from some women in these guys' lives so at about 4 or 5
a.m. the three guys U sha Barry Bill King Russell Brewer they showed up at uh Bill King's I'm guessing his
girlfriend's house or place I'm unclear as to the details of the relationship but the two had a child together okay
okay uh baby mama yes and when the sheriff's department when they go to talk with with her she identifies the
lighter that they found the lighter that has the word posum in the KKK thing on it uh as bills lighter and she tells
them that the three men showed up at her place like we said about four or five a.m. in the morning and they stayed
there that night right and and the thing about the posum is that that was Bill's
nickname because he was King Bill King they called him possum King okay that makes
so she identified the lighter as belonging to bill so now they're going to have all three of these guys in
custody and they're not they're not charging them with anything yet because they don't really fully know what's gone
down or if these guys are in fact guilty of anything when they rounded these guys
up this is another weird part of this story that you come across they found that the the guys were in possession of
some form of stolen property mhm so they're going to kind of hold that over their heads and use that for means to
hold them as long you know longer so they can speak with these guys and figure out what happened well all these
guys have a record they're just I mean they're they're smalltime criminals is what they truly are I I mean until this
point in the story but they're they're bad at it like they're not they're not smart they don't get away with anything
you know what I mean like well well you can tell I mean they're they're racist and and by definition that makes them
ignorant people yeah but they can't even be good at committing crime I mean they
get picked up for all these smalltime things and then this possession of stolen property what we're talking about
here is there was a restaurant that was broken into uh days before this event happened okay and when when they were
going through these men's belongings after having arrested them and speaking with them they found them to be in
possession of of stolen frozen meat that was from that location so they I mean they couldn't
prove that they had broke into the restaurant but it looks like yeah it's not like if you went into my freezer
right now and you said man there's a bunch of Wendy's patties in here where did you get those oh how that happen I
bought them at the store I'm good friends with Wendy they probably said uh why do you guys have all this meat here
and they said well you know we need some extra money so we could get our our our
sheets together so we could cut some holes in them to make some clue clucks clay hats that's what we want to do so
they're holding these guys they're holding them and questioning all three of them obviously separately trying to
figure out what had happened that night or maybe and this is what they're probably really trying to do Captain you
know this I know this a lot of the listeners out there know this what they're probably trying to do is to get
these guys to start turning on one another right well Barry Shawn Barry ends up giving the share Sheriff
permission to search his truck he didn't have to you know he could have said nope
can't search my truck you have to come back with probable cause or or a warrant well he gives them permission to search
the truck and the sheriff's department they find Blood on the underside of the truck they also find tools in the truck
and these tools they you know we mentioned that wrench earlier other than the three gentlemen
yeah well uh just like that wrench that they had found earlier these tools are inscribed with the word or the name
Barry on them right so it's looking like that wrench came from this you know was
is the missing piece from this set that they find in the truck yeah cuz it's one
thing for law enforcement to find you know a wrench that says Berry we would all assume where it came from but you
can't do that when you're in court so by finding these other tools with inside the truck then that's that's your con
connection that's where that's kind of uh Undisputed evidence well yeah it it takes a it takes a piece of evidence
that was a little Loosey Goosey and now it's some pretty hardcore substantial evidence I believe right and then on top
of that you have the blood evidence underneath the truck at some point and I'm I'm unclear who this was I believe
it may have been Shawn Barry though but I do want to point out that I'm I'm a little unclear who who did this but at
some point during the questioning one of these guys says the n-word to sheriff rolls mhm okay so at that point the
sheriff sheriff rolls and Sheriff rolls is a white guy yeah yeah oh yeah yeah but I guess we should point that out but
they're not directing it towards him they're just saying it that's okay so I think it was Shawn Barry and I think
when he was asked what he was doing the night before he says something something
like I was just trying to stay white no he says something like we you know me and the guys were riding around in our
truck and at some point we drove this right person into town this nword yeah right so um yeah that's a that if that's
not a red flag I I I got to tell you though Captain I'm a huge fan of the sheriff rolls guy a big fan of this dude
so he quickly understands what he's dealing with right you know it's he has an African-American murder victim killed
in one of the worst ways imaginable tortured you have to say tortured cuz that's what it is MHM and it's starting
to look like he was killed by these three guys three white guys and one of them is now using racial slurs during
the questioning process so it's now obvious to the sheriff that these guys if they did this they committed this
murder simply out of hate and that these guys killed James Bird Jr just because he was black right so Sheriff rolls
tells tells Shawn Barry and this is why I think that word came from Barry because R he's a real piece of [ __ ] well
roll is going to turn up the heat on Barry good okay and so he wants him to squirm a bit cuz he's what he's he's
starting to see is out of these three dudes this is the guy that that first of all we have things connecting your truck
to this situation right we got you you are already in the most heat so now you either need to tell us what happened or
we're coming we're coming at at you full go and so to turn up the heat he tells sha Barry exactly how it's going to be
from from this point on in the investigation Sheriff rolls tell sha Barry I have called the FBI and I can
guarantee you one thing is is for certain the FBI is going to be taking this thing over they're going to be
taking a hard look at you they're going to charge you with murder and you are going to be the first one they are
talking to first thing in the morning well and I think it's smart too you you come from such a small town it's smart
to turn this over to the FBI this is this is something bigger this crime is something bigger than Jasper mhm well
once the sheriff threatens Shawn Barry with getting the FBI involved and letting him know that they're going to
be speaking with him first thing in the morning right well that's all the encouragement that sha Barry needs
because now he's going to tell them what happened and we can get into that tomorrow the the evidence of the case
the details of the case and then the trial as well MH and this is a very difficult case to cover yeah oh yeah
difficult uncomfortable um but if this is a very important case anybody that remembers this case back from 1998 it
was I mean it was National headlines because of how horrific the nature of the crime was but also how we thought
and when I say we I mean us as a nation I've got to believe that that most of us
believed that this was something that we it's an embarrassing portion of our history um it's a it's a part of our
history that I personally am very ashamed of but I think we thought as a nation that that we were very far past
this right and it turned out that we were not so as uncomfortable and as difficult as this case can be to report
to everybody in the garage here it's something that we shouldn't shy away from it's important to discuss these
things and it's necessary thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend and thanks for sharing on
social media we hope everybody has a good night and we will see you back here in the garage tomorrow until then be
good be kind and don't [Music] [Applause] litter canva presents a true crime of design in
the office Maya spots something unusual in the presentation what's this it was an off-brand font her coworker explains
I added the font I thought it was fun it was not Maya solved it with canva open up canva one click and the font is on
brand easy stay on brand and solve font crimes at canva.com the home for every [Music]
brand

James Byrd Jr. /// Part 1 /// 163

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.TrueCrimeGarage.com)

The Crime was unspeakable: June 7, 1998; 49 year old James Byrd jr. was picked up by three white men in Jasper, Texas. They took him to the woods where they beat James and chained him by his ankles to the rear bumper of their pick up truck. He was dragged three miles along country roads. His head was severed from his torso by a roadside culvert. Tonight we discuss a horrible senseless murder that shook the nation and forever scarred an East Texas town. Beer of the Week - Circus City by Big Top Brewing CompanyGarage Grade - 3 and 3/4 bottle caps out of 5

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com (https://pcm.adswizz.com) for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brief Summary

The episode details the brutal murder of James Byrd Jr. by three white supremacists in Jasper, Texas, in 1998.

Key points

Ashley Mattress Deals. Quality sleep with top brands at winning prices!
True Crime Garage Introduction. Hosts Nick and the Captain welcome listeners to the show.
The Tragic Story of James Bird Jr.. A look back at the life and impact of James Bird Jr. in Jasper, Texas.
Bill King's Return to Jasper. After prison, Bill King resumes friendships despite his racist views.
The Night of James Bird's Murder. James Bird spends a joyful day before encountering danger on his walk home.
Discovery of James Bird's Body. Authorities find evidence suggesting a brutal murder rather than a hit and run.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Jasper Texas put him on the map!

James Bird Jr.'s impact

5:12WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.