June 17, 2024 • 39 mins
Detective Danny Smith has solidified his theory on Billy Halpern's murder, revealing a direct link to organized crime that stretches far beyond the shores of South Florida. With this breakthrough, he's now prepared to present his case to prosecutors. Meanwhile, investigative journalist Scott Weinberger delves into a deeper, more sinister potential connection between Billy's murder and the alarming rise of police corruption in the 1980s.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
I never met, y'all.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I don't even know him.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I know who he is.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
He came into a restaurant that I worked at with
his family and my friend who knew him. Do you
know that Gil Fernandez, who we didn't kill Billy. I'm like,
oh my god, and I was freaking out, and then
I couldn't wait on him. I'm like, oh my god,
I think he killed my brother.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Laurie Halpern is convinced that ex Miami police officer Gil
Fernandez and is Apollo Jim Co owner Bert Christi were
the men behind her brother Billy's.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Nineteen eighty six murder. She's not the only one.
Speaker 5 (00:41):
They got wins somehow that he had information. He suspected
he said something out loud that somebody overheard and had
got back to Bert or Gil or both, and so
they took him out.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
That was Prosecutor Cindy Imperado, who believe Fernandez and Christi
were running a crew of fellow bodybuilders that were responsible
for a string of ripoffs and shakedowns, some of them deadly,
and when they feared Billy knew too much about their
criminal activity, Christie ordered Gil to make the threat disappear.
Speaker 5 (01:19):
Whether he did it or not. Nothing's been proven. I mean,
he hasn't been charged with it, but that was the
theory of the case. So you had a police officer
who was ripping off drug dealers and killing them and
then killing anybody else that might witness it.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
If true, it may account for Billy's execution style murder
in October of nineteen eighty six, the murder of his
friends Mitch Hall and Charlotte de Drought in May of
nineteen eighty seven, and the executions of two of Gil's
own crew, Jimmy high Note and Harry Pollier just six
weeks later. All of them were members of the Apollo,
(02:00):
which means all of them could have had the goods
on Fernandez and Christie.
Speaker 6 (02:06):
If Billy was killed because he knew too much, which
is the theory that I'm working on, then anyone that
he could have put into prison by giving that information
or led that information out, that's who would have benefited.
So if Billy had information that could put someone in
jail with what he knew, then killing him is going
(02:28):
to benefit that person or those people.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
And that may even include members of organized crime.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
There were multiple people that gave information saying that Burt
Christie was working for the Columbo family out of Chicago.
Was Billy just in as much danger if a Columbo
family didn't know about him?
Speaker 7 (02:51):
Yeah, I think he was.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
But I think that a little bit of pressure from
maybe bosses so Burt Christie would seal a deal for
Billy and it really seal his faith.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
But if that were true, and Billy was in possession
of information that could endanger Fernandez and Christie's operation, a
larger question still looms. How would Gill and Burt have
known that Billy was a potential threat? After all, according
to Mark Lopez, there were plenty of guys at the
(03:26):
gym that knew what was going on and were smart
enough to look the other way.
Speaker 8 (03:33):
Do you have to realize something that people were very
afraid because, you know, if he and d was the
one committing these murders, they thought if they went in
or cooperated, they were going to be in a jackpot.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Was Billy's mere proximity to the rumors swirling around the
Apollo really a reason to kill him?
Speaker 4 (03:54):
It seemed unlikely.
Speaker 8 (03:57):
It just was a guy that I don't think anybody
thought was tied up. And you know a lot of craziness, right,
So I think it was just shocked for most people,
like why would anybody kill this guy?
Speaker 3 (04:08):
But if Billy had indeed gone to the police, that
was another story. When Billy's friend, Mitch Hall was killed
six months later, Mitch's sister came to believe that the
motive behind both their murders was right there in black
and white.
Speaker 9 (04:25):
My brother came to me and he said, Billy Helpurn
died and I'm going to find out.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Who killed him.
Speaker 9 (04:32):
And he went to the police station and he was
killed the next day. So I'm assuming there was a
leak in the police station and somebody said Mitch Hall
knows who killed Billy, and then they went and killed
him that next day.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Billy's sister, she'd been harboring the same.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Thought, like you were going to tell what you knew
about Billy and none then you get killed. Who in
the police department is a bad guy?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
It was time to talk about the elephant in the room.
I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff, and
this is cold blooded the Apollo Jim murders.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
It is truly a terrifying thought.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
But when Danny had to confront could Gil Fernandez, the
next cop with dozens of friends in contacts still on
the force, had been tipped off that Billy halpurn was
cooperating with law enforcement, and if so, did it cost
Billy his life?
Speaker 6 (05:41):
My initial thought was not a chance, and that's probably
a little naive on my part, because obviously there's a chance.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
The first step in uncovering the truth would be the
search for any record of Billy Halpern's contact with investigators
in either Miramar or Broward County.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
Well, considering that the Danger Road triple murder was in
nineteen eighty three and Billy was eighty six, I figured
there may be some kind of a record that Billy
was interviewed, just like many other people that were around
the Apollo gym.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Which, as we heard from Mark Lopez, would have carried
with it considerable risk.
Speaker 8 (06:23):
People were very afraid because they knew not he was
a hardcore gangster, but he was an ex cop and
he had friends still on the force, So it was like, well,
if he runted a law how do you know that
one of his buddies, I'm going to look it back
to him, and then you're in trouble.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Danny hoped the truth would lie somewhere in the forty
year old case file.
Speaker 6 (06:49):
All I could do was just read every single piece
of paper and at least the case fall that I have,
and look for any indication that Billy was interviewed.
Speaker 7 (06:58):
And I really couldn't find anything.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
According to the case file kept by a mirror MARPDI,
there was no evidence that Billy had ever cooperated with investigators.
Of course, no record on file didn't mean Billy was
never approached.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
It may just mean that Billy was smart.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Enough to keep it a secret, and Danny, he's smart
enough to know that not everything makes it.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
On paper and into an investigative file.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
I was able to speak to a couple of the
detectives that previously worked in these cases back in the
eighties and asked them, and they also said that they
don't have any recollection Billy being interviewed.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
So what if Billy didn't go to police, it was
still likely he had heard the rumors about Gilan Burt,
possibly even their involvement in the triple murder on Danger Road,
and that by itself would have been dangerous information to possess.
Speaker 6 (08:00):
I think that Billy did know. I think that anyone
that spent any amount of time over at the Apollo
gym would either hear the rumors or maybe even see
the meetings, or even hear certain conversations by being there.
The odds of them hearing about certain crimes, I think
is possible.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
This was confirmed by other Apollo members like Mark Lopez
and Dave Fasano, guys who had more than an inkling
of what was going on, but who were wise enough
to mind their own business.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
So what made them different from Billy?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Why target Billy and not the other guys at the gym?
Speaker 6 (08:44):
Best guess, and this is speaking with a lot of
people that were very close with Billy. I think Billy
was less willing to play ball and keep his mouth shut.
I think that Billy was probably a little outspoken at
the atrocities that he had heard about.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Mark Lopez tends to agree.
Speaker 8 (09:04):
I don't think Billy was necessarily tied up in anything specifically.
I think he may have just inadvertently been exposed to
some information and the powers that be thought, why take
a chance, right, It's just one more guy that's going
to need to.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Go one person.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Danny thinks Billy may have talked to his friend, Mitch Hall.
The evidence was circumstantial but persuasive, and I said.
Speaker 9 (09:33):
Mitch, don't can involve with those type of people.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Mitch's sister also remembers Mitch telling her that he was
willing to go to the police and tell them what
he knew.
Speaker 9 (09:46):
And he went to the police station and he was
killed the next day.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Billy's sister, Laurie, was also convinced that the timing of
Mitch's murder was no coincidence.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I really think there had to be a rat, a
dirty rat in a police department.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Even a CoP's son like Danny Smith, whose father worked
in law enforcement for nearly thirty years, knows that South
Florida in the nineteen eighties was plagued with police corruption.
The easy money from drugs flowing into South America proved
irresistible to a lot of people, including some members of
(10:29):
law enforcement. In fact, the result of a massive crackdown
on police corruption in nineteen eighty seven revealed that up
to ten percent of the entire MIAMIPD had been suspended, fired,
or incarcerated for their involvement in criminal activity. Whether that
corruption reached the much smaller departments in Brier County or
(10:50):
MI or mar.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
We don't know.
Speaker 6 (10:53):
I obviously want to give the investigators or the police
officers and the tecers back then the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 7 (10:59):
However, is it possible? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (11:01):
Absolutely, And the only way that I could verify that
is just to legitimately read every word of every document
that was provided to me and see if there's anything there,
and then moreover me or speak with the previous detectives
and just ask ask the question.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
If Danny could find the evidence that Mitch Hall had
indeed filed a report or met with anyone at Mirror,
Marpadi or Browie County Sheriff's office, it would go a
long way to casting suspicion on someone within law enforcement
being complicit in his murder. But according to Danny, there
was no record that Mitch had ever met with.
Speaker 6 (11:42):
Police now it happened the crimes were eighty six in
nineteen eighty seven. Is it very easy for investigators to
have that conversation with Mitch Hall and not take any
notes and just ignore it.
Speaker 7 (11:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
Absolutely, There's no way I could verify that, And if
they didn't want to tell me, then there's nothing I
can do about that. But assuming that there were notes
taken because the case file that I have on Billy
Holburn is extremely well done, well written organized. If anyone
came in and had an information on Billy's murder, that
(12:19):
that would have been written down.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Whether that was enough to quell rumors that someone within
law enforcement leaked information to Gil. Danny still doesn't know.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
Most of the rumors, if not all. The rumors were
centered around the fact that Gill was a cop, and
the assumption was that all cops know each other and
all cops share information, and there's the idea of he's
a cop. Even if he's bad, other people are gonna
cover for him because he's a cop.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Danny has been in uniform for twenty seven years and
he knows as well as anybody about the sworn loyalty
that exists between people who every day put their lives
into each other's hands. And he can also understand the
suspicion surrounding his fellow brothers in blue.
Speaker 6 (13:12):
It's a society. Police officers have their own family. There's
good cops and bad cops out there. Obviously, again, it
would be naive on my part to blindly say that
there was never any corruption at any level. I feel
that it was incumbent upon me to go through and
check to see if there was any internal affairs investigations
or any statements that show corruption, because it does happen,
(13:36):
let's be honest with each other.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
But that search also yielded no evidence that any member
of law enforcement was ever suspected of being complicit in
Billy or Mitch's murder.
Speaker 6 (13:49):
There was no indication that there was an internal affairs
investigation on anyone that related to helping Gil.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Or helping the Apollo, or saying anything that can be hearing.
Put the investigators on a different path on purpose. So
there were never any substantiated rumors naving specific comps or
improper behavior.
Speaker 7 (14:11):
But they were there. The rumors were around. Everyone around
it knew it.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
Unfortunately, no solid answers were found in the documentation, and unfortunately,
in a cold case, that's all I've gotten for now.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
The rumors proved to be just that prosecutors sending imperado
things that even for Florida cops, there was a limit
to their loyalty.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
For the most part, law enforcement is loyal to their
own But I think once they saw what he was
charged with and everything, it was a different story.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
But considering the client tele at the Apollo, Fernandez and
Christie probably didn't need a crooked cop to keep threats
at bay.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
They had enough eyes and ears right there in the gym, including.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
One long time friend who may have set the stage
for Billy's murder. By nineteen eighty six, Billy Halburn had
left his job as a paramedic at the Hollandale Fire
(15:21):
Department due to a lingering back injury.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Billy told his sister Laurie.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
That he was going to deploy his charm and good
looks into a new career in sales, namely the trade
of fine art and rare coins. The career change suited him,
after all, South Florida in the mid eighties seemed to
be flushed with easy money, and Billy was eager to
(15:46):
get a piece of it.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I think Billy probably still had been for Nickolie ever
made when he died.
Speaker 7 (15:55):
She was so frugal.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
He had a paper of a pad like that of
all the money that people owed him.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
But according to Laurie, she did notice signs that the
rare coin trade might have given way to another more
lucrative business.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Then Billy and Jimmy got involved with I thought our
dealing or you know, I'm not even sure what I
thought they were doing, but I didn't really think about
it because we all grew up together.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Were there a couple of guys that said that you
might have been selling a little bit of drugs here
and there?
Speaker 7 (16:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (16:29):
Oh huge death last Yeah, I mean, we're not an idiot,
and safe to say it paid a lot better than coins.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
They were making money. Oh my god, the money was
sick that you would that they were making. And I
really always felt that he would talk about it too much.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
But according to Laurie, Billy was never long for that world.
Speaker 11 (17:00):
He bought property up in Melbourne Beach at nineteen eighty
four and it was extream, you know, make the money,
get out, go up to Melbourne, beef bee surfer, live
on REGI, you know, live my life.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
But he would never get the chance.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Instead, he was killed in his home in October of
nineteen eighty six. Laurie realizes now that he's pleased to
leave town before his death may have been more than
just an idle daydream.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Billy had left me, you know, money, He had a will,
and when he went to some and do the will,
it's like Lord by come on, we're going to bob
our childhood friend to drop a will. I'm like, get
out of here, and we're not going to get away.
Speaker 11 (17:52):
No, I'm serious, lord, come on.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Was Billy's wonderlust desire to leave South Florida to another
paradise up the coast, or wasn't motivated by fear of
what could happen if he stayed.
Speaker 12 (18:08):
Let me tell you, I remember that when I lived
with him, he came to the door my bedroom at
the front, the front door, and he opened up my door, Floria,
I love you.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
If anything happened to me. She knows that I love you,
I'm like, and he caught me off gard like what
are you talking about?
Speaker 12 (18:27):
And he ran off, like where are you going?
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Looking back, Laurie now thinks he sounded like a guy
who was in too deep and was fearing for his life,
and she thinks she knows who's to blame. After Billy
was murdered, Laurie was shaken by a memory of walking
into a tense meeting at Billy's town home.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Well, I came over one day and I walked in.
I'm like, Jimmy, like, what do you what he doing here?
Speaker 3 (18:58):
By this time, Jimmy high Note was a regular member
of Gil's shakedown crew. We can only speculate as to
why one of Billy's suspected killers was in his town
home just weeks before Billy was killed.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Was Jimmy warning him of imminent danger?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Or was he casing the location on orders from Gil
and Burt?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
And I think with the art pretending to be into
the art maybe or coin collecting, but maybe that was
the way he got in comfortable with Billy on behalf
of them.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
I think maybe, whatever the reason, after Billy was killed,
Laurie said she knew it was no innocent.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Visit, you know. Then I knew Jimmy had to be involved.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Which brings us back to that empty safe in Billy's
bedroom and the possibility that it contained not rare coins,
but what Dave Fersano called the best coke in town.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
I know that some people say that Billy was ripped
for drugs. Some people say that he was ripped for
coins and art.
Speaker 7 (20:08):
I heard that rumor a lot.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
I did, and after a year and a half of
looking into it and trying to either confirm or deny
those rumors, I feel that the rumors were.
Speaker 7 (20:22):
Just that.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
No matter what evidence Danny had turned up about Billy's
source of income, he remains convinced Billy's.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Murder was no robbery, It was a hit.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
The comment thoughts and ideas that I got from those
closest to Billy, Gil, Harry, Collier, Apollo, Jim was that
Billy was killed because he knew or overheard or was
told something about murders that occurred or who could have
been involved in those murders. And I honestly think that
people just were not comfortable with Billy having.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
This information, information that threatened the illicit livelihood of Fernandez
and Christi, but also that of his old friend Jimmy Heinault,
whose betrayal may have resulted in Billy's murder.
Speaker 13 (21:16):
The concept of clearing a case exceptionally is relatively simple,
and what it means is that the prosecutor, in conjunction
with law enforcement who investigated the matter, is convinced that
there is probable cause to charge someone with the crime. However,
for some reason, it is either an opportune or impossible
(21:40):
to charge the suspect with the offense, and the way
that most frequently occurs is that the suspect is dead
at the time probable cause is developed, as so happened
in this case.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Brian Porter is a veteran prosecutor who is not associated
with this case. He is a legal scholar who has
been part of several investigations I've reported on.
Speaker 13 (22:04):
I've been the elected prosecutor in my jurisdiction for over
eleven years, and I've made exceptional case closure calls on
any number of occasions. And really what it boils down
to is it's the same exact analysis that I would
make if a detective came to me and asked me
to charge somebody with murder. It's not a lesser standard
(22:25):
in my mind, It's the same exact standard.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Danny had untangled as much as he could with the
given evidence, and he believed he had a convincing version
of what happened to Billy Halpern. But still he had
to convince Broward County's top homicide prosecutor that he was right.
Speaker 6 (22:48):
Writing the close up memo to the State Attorney's office
was really an opportunity for me to take all of
the work that I've done and shrink it to five
or six seven page memo giving the bullet points as
to what I found, and why I believe that this
(23:09):
case should be solved.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
The keystone in his argument was the striking similarity between
the Hall Drought murders and Billy Halpern's murder.
Speaker 13 (23:22):
In this case, a great deal of the case relies
on what we would call common scheme or plan evidence.
In other words, is it very obvious that these offenses
had to be related, because the individual facts that each
murder are so similar in nature that it kind of
just defies logic that they weren't related.
Speaker 7 (23:40):
Neither had fourth century.
Speaker 6 (23:43):
The same materials were used to bind all three victims
in the two cases, the binding, the way that they
were bound was similar or even identical, and the use
of a sharp edged tool, which neither weapon was found,
so we can't verify exactly if it was the same weapon,
but the modus opera and I, or the way that
(24:07):
these crimes were committed were literally almost identical.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Danny went on to argue that because Harry Collier's fingerprint
was proof he killed Paul and Drought, then it stands
to reason that he was also the man who killed
Billy Halpern.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
I was able to write it up and say that
if Harry Collier were alive today, then I would feel
comfortable taking this to grand jury, and even more comfortable
or confident that we would give an indictment.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
You may be asking, as I did, wasn't this case
against Collier based entirely on circumstantial evidence?
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Again, here's veteran prosecutor Brian Porter.
Speaker 13 (24:50):
Unfortunately, in my opinion, television and the movies have led
way people to kind of equate the phrase circumstantial evidence
with weak case, and that's most definitely not the situation.
The only type of direct evidence that actually exists would
be either eyewitness testimony, a confession by the suspect, or
(25:11):
perhaps nowadays, if you had video of the actual offense
being committed. And to be quite honest, because most murderers
do not confess to their murders, and because most murderers
do not commit murders in front of video cameras, and
because murderers do their best to kill people when there
are no eyewitnesses, the vast majority of murder cases an
investigation that I've been involved in my career require us
(25:34):
to build a case from circumstantial evidence, And if I
were reluctant to do so, there would be a lot
of very angry victim families if I told them, hey,
I've got a pretty strong case, but it's all circumstantial
and therefore I can't charge the murderer.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
After nearly two years on Billy Halpin's murder case, Danny
submitted his memo to the State Attorney's office.
Speaker 13 (25:55):
In the end, the evidence in this case is very compelling,
and I think prosecutor would be duty bound to close
the case exceptionally.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
But we would have to wait and see.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
I submitted the memo.
Speaker 6 (26:24):
In reality, it was probably a couple hours, but it
felt like four years. But I got a response from
the State Attorney's office and they confirmed my findings and
they agreed with me.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
The state attorney agreed that there was enough evidence to
charge Harry Collier with Billy Helper's murder, but because Collier
was dead and unable to stand trial, the state attorney
would exceptionally clear the case. Danny was confident in his
conclusion that Harry Collier killed Billy halpern.
Speaker 6 (27:04):
So obviously I was happy. I was happy for the case.
I was happy for Laurie. It was short lived, honestly,
because as happy as I was for Laurie and the
helping family and all their friends. Honestly, my mind immediately
went to Harry Collier's widow and his son.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Holly's wife Miami, had cooperated, her son had given DNA,
and they had held on to hope that Harry was
not the man they suspected him of being.
Speaker 6 (27:43):
I tend to view them as victims in this case
also because they didn't ask for any of this, and
this information is going to come out and he's essentially
going to victimize his family again from beyond the grave.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
But as a detective, his was still first and foremost
to Billy and his surviving family. And after thirty seven years,
it was finally time to give lour some good news.
Speaker 6 (28:13):
May fourteenth, twenty twenty four. It is one oh one
in the afternoon. I'm just about to go sit down
with Lori Halpern and do really one of the good
things that we get to do as homicide detectives, which
is to speak with victim's family and give them a resolution,
(28:33):
give them some kind of comfort that we've identified the
person that's involved, for the person responsible for their loved
ones murder.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Laurie Halpurn has been intimately involved in Danny's investigation since
the beginning, so no news was going to come completely
as a shock, but it was important to Danny to
deliver the state attorney's decision in person.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
What I have here is a memo that I wrote
to our state Attorney's office. This is what we have,
this is the evidence, this is what my conclusion is,
and then I leave it up to them.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Danny summarizes his case, including the disappointing reality of the
inability to use DNA to id Billy's killer.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
She had no DNA for Gil in there. The DNA
that we had was so degraded. And to answer your question, Gil,
I cannot say that he was involved. I'm not saying
he wasn't involved, but I can't prove that he had
any knowledge or he had any involvement of being there.
But I can say that Harry Collier was involved, He
(29:51):
was there, took part in it.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
What about Jimmy hin Note.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Jimmy h Note is the same for me as Gil.
I believe that he probably was there, but I don't
have enough that I can definitively say that, yes, Jimmy
was there, Gil was there, or even in Mike Carbone.
I can't say any of them just because the science
isn't there.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
But despite the degraded DNA, Danny believed his case against
Harry Collier was rock solid.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
So for me as an investigator, I was able to
do this document, send it over to the State Attorney's
office and say, if Harry Callier were alive today, I
would be taken him to Grand Jerry and I would
probably be arresting him on the evidence that I have.
Speaker 7 (30:37):
And they said, we.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Agree, we agree.
Speaker 14 (30:42):
And for nothing though, I mean, if he didn't believe it,
truly sad you kick everything away from my fit parents
for devastated and for nothing.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
How can you kill people like that and not even
think anything of it?
Speaker 1 (31:06):
You're a freaking evil, sir.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
He's pure evil.
Speaker 14 (31:10):
How do you get involved with Jimmy?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I know?
Speaker 1 (31:13):
So Collier was not from down here, which is why
really not many people know him.
Speaker 6 (31:20):
He was from the northeast, Okay, and he had ties to.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Burt Christie. But it looks like he was the guy
that they called and they said we need something done.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
He was the hit man.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Was he was a hit man? Yeah, he was a violent,
violent man.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Here's the thing about solving a murder case. It can
answer long unanswered questions. It can unburden survivors of uncertainty
surrounding a loved one's death, maybe even deliver a sense
of justice, but it can't bring a victim back, and
the end is always bittersweet.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
I believe we've proven that Harry Collier was a principal
and was involved in Billy's murder. He's dead and there's
really not a whole lot that can be done. But
at the very least it'll give you a little bit
of something.
Speaker 14 (32:19):
I hope no my parents be happy to know that
you cared enough to do this.
Speaker 7 (32:30):
Well.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
I'll be honest, I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't
get a live person to charge now. I really wanted to, but.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
It wouldn't matter even if Gil didn't. You had proof
that Gil did it. I mean, he's Gurdi in jail
for life. What's going to happen Nothing, I have.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
To admit I shared some of Laurie's frustrations about why
it took nearly forty years to get real answers, but
it is a credit to Danny that he remained steadfast
in his commitment to what he could prove, not what
he may have believed to be true.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
But here again, I felt it was important to put
this officially.
Speaker 7 (33:16):
I say it is.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
My opinion that Billy heard mention of the triple murder
in nineteen eighty three that was committed by Gil Fernandez.
I mentioned that I agree with the previous investigators that
Fernandez orchestrated and potentially participated in the murders of not
only Billy, but Mitch Sharonda, Jimmy Heina, and Harry Pollier.
(33:41):
I don't have jurisdiction on those cases, so I can't
pursue them, but I am working with other detectives that
have now reopened those cases.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Really, the fact was that Billy's case may have been cleared,
but that does not mean it has been closed. The
DNA sample retrieved from the help and crime scene may
have been inadequate to ideas suspect, but there was no
telling where the science would be in a few years
and what it may reveal about who else was in
(34:10):
the room when Collier killed Billy.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
You got my carbone DNA?
Speaker 9 (34:16):
You do?
Speaker 11 (34:17):
I do?
Speaker 1 (34:18):
And that was a big one. That was a big
one because if I couldn't get him on this, at
the very least, maybe I can help another agency or another.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Ida great if he has something to do with it.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
So indirectly Billy's investigations, he could.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Help open the other rights are yeah, that would be great.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
After Danny's visit with Laurie, we discussed whether after nearly
two years of an investigation and successfully clearing the Helper
and cold case, he still had any lingering, doubts or
uncertainty about his conclusions.
Speaker 6 (34:53):
I was happy that I was able to ensure that Laurie,
after this is all said, Laura helped and has more
answers than she has questions. After all these years, I
know there's more to the story, and there are certain
things that I just simply was unable to get an
answer to. I gave everything that I had, but I
(35:14):
still feel that it's slightly incomplete because there's just answers
that I don't have.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Many of those questions revolve around the role of Gil
Fernandez or Christi, and even the unseen forces that may
have been behind the order to kill Billy.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
I would have loved to prove that additional people were involved,
and I do feel very confident.
Speaker 7 (35:38):
That there were other people involved.
Speaker 6 (35:41):
But at this stage in the investigation, I can only
go as far as the evidence will take me, and
in this case, the evidence took me to an ending.
I just I don't think it's the ending. I think
it's an ending, but not the ending.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
This was also the story of DNA, its promise and
its limitations.
Speaker 6 (36:04):
And at the very beginning, every single piece of evidence
that I asked to be tested, I was, in my
mind positive we were going to come back with a
hit and a match.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
The discovery of untested DNA at Billy's crime scene felt
destined for an instant match and swift resolution to the investigation.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
But of course that proved not to be the case.
Speaker 6 (36:30):
And unfortunately it was a It was a punch in
the gut every time I got those results.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
But those disappointing results had a positive effect too, in
that it forced Danny to lean on what he did best,
the research, the interviews, and the old school gumshoe detective
work that helped piece together the narrative of the crime.
And while the DNA results did not prove who was
(36:58):
present at Billy's murder, it did not disprove any theories either.
Speaker 6 (37:04):
Just because someone's DNA is not on a piece of
evidence does not mean that they were not involved. I
think a lot of people will hear that, oh, well,
Gill's DNA was not located on the binding, so that
means he wasn't involved, And no, that's not the case.
I'm not saying that he was or wasn't because I
(37:25):
can't prove it, but I can say that it's possible
that anyone is involved even if their DNA was found
on the evidence.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Harry Collier was a hulking hit man, hired for his
muscle and his ruthless skills with a knife, and ultimately
he bears responsibility.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
For the murder of Billy Halpern.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
But Danny and I still can't shake the one thing
that everyone we talked to agreed on, and the fact
that the evidence supported Billy's killer did not work alone.
And while most of the suspects in our investigation were
long dead, there was still one man who Danny thought
might be interested in hearing the results of the investigation,
(38:14):
the man once known as the meanest cop in Miami
and the last remaining suspect in Billy's murder, Bill Fernandez.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
Cold Blooded.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
The Apollo Jim Murders is a production of iHeart Podcasts
and Authentic Wave Media. Scott Weinberger, Kevin Bennett, and Walker
LeMond are executive producers. Sabrina Sire is our line producer,
scoring sound design and mixing by Mark lamoorg Z. For
(38:56):
iHeart Podcasts, Christina Everett is executive producer, and David Wasserman
is brand marketing manager. And with special thanks to the
Miramar Police Department, Chief del Rich Moss, p Io Tanya Ardaz,
and Detective Susie Smith
I never met, y'all.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I don't even know him.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I know who he is.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
He came into a restaurant that I worked at with
his family and my friend who knew him. Do you
know that Gil Fernandez, who we didn't kill Billy. I'm like,
oh my god, and I was freaking out, and then
I couldn't wait on him. I'm like, oh my god,
I think he killed my brother.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Laurie Halpern is convinced that ex Miami police officer Gil
Fernandez and is Apollo Jim Co owner Bert Christi were
the men behind her brother Billy's.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Nineteen eighty six murder. She's not the only one.
Speaker 5 (00:41):
They got wins somehow that he had information. He suspected
he said something out loud that somebody overheard and had
got back to Bert or Gil or both, and so
they took him out.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
That was Prosecutor Cindy Imperado, who believe Fernandez and Christi
were running a crew of fellow bodybuilders that were responsible
for a string of ripoffs and shakedowns, some of them deadly,
and when they feared Billy knew too much about their
criminal activity, Christie ordered Gil to make the threat disappear.
Speaker 5 (01:19):
Whether he did it or not. Nothing's been proven. I mean,
he hasn't been charged with it, but that was the
theory of the case. So you had a police officer
who was ripping off drug dealers and killing them and
then killing anybody else that might witness it.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
If true, it may account for Billy's execution style murder
in October of nineteen eighty six, the murder of his
friends Mitch Hall and Charlotte de Drought in May of
nineteen eighty seven, and the executions of two of Gil's
own crew, Jimmy high Note and Harry Pollier just six
weeks later. All of them were members of the Apollo,
(02:00):
which means all of them could have had the goods
on Fernandez and Christie.
Speaker 6 (02:06):
If Billy was killed because he knew too much, which
is the theory that I'm working on, then anyone that
he could have put into prison by giving that information
or led that information out, that's who would have benefited.
So if Billy had information that could put someone in
jail with what he knew, then killing him is going
(02:28):
to benefit that person or those people.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
And that may even include members of organized crime.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
There were multiple people that gave information saying that Burt
Christie was working for the Columbo family out of Chicago.
Was Billy just in as much danger if a Columbo
family didn't know about him?
Speaker 7 (02:51):
Yeah, I think he was.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
But I think that a little bit of pressure from
maybe bosses so Burt Christie would seal a deal for
Billy and it really seal his faith.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
But if that were true, and Billy was in possession
of information that could endanger Fernandez and Christie's operation, a
larger question still looms. How would Gill and Burt have
known that Billy was a potential threat? After all, according
to Mark Lopez, there were plenty of guys at the
(03:26):
gym that knew what was going on and were smart
enough to look the other way.
Speaker 8 (03:33):
Do you have to realize something that people were very
afraid because, you know, if he and d was the
one committing these murders, they thought if they went in
or cooperated, they were going to be in a jackpot.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Was Billy's mere proximity to the rumors swirling around the
Apollo really a reason to kill him?
Speaker 4 (03:54):
It seemed unlikely.
Speaker 8 (03:57):
It just was a guy that I don't think anybody
thought was tied up. And you know a lot of craziness, right,
So I think it was just shocked for most people,
like why would anybody kill this guy?
Speaker 3 (04:08):
But if Billy had indeed gone to the police, that
was another story. When Billy's friend, Mitch Hall was killed
six months later, Mitch's sister came to believe that the
motive behind both their murders was right there in black
and white.
Speaker 9 (04:25):
My brother came to me and he said, Billy Helpurn
died and I'm going to find out.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Who killed him.
Speaker 9 (04:32):
And he went to the police station and he was
killed the next day. So I'm assuming there was a
leak in the police station and somebody said Mitch Hall
knows who killed Billy, and then they went and killed
him that next day.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Billy's sister, she'd been harboring the same.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Thought, like you were going to tell what you knew
about Billy and none then you get killed. Who in
the police department is a bad guy?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
It was time to talk about the elephant in the room.
I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff, and
this is cold blooded the Apollo Jim murders.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
It is truly a terrifying thought.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
But when Danny had to confront could Gil Fernandez, the
next cop with dozens of friends in contacts still on
the force, had been tipped off that Billy halpurn was
cooperating with law enforcement, and if so, did it cost
Billy his life?
Speaker 6 (05:41):
My initial thought was not a chance, and that's probably
a little naive on my part, because obviously there's a chance.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
The first step in uncovering the truth would be the
search for any record of Billy Halpern's contact with investigators
in either Miramar or Broward County.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
Well, considering that the Danger Road triple murder was in
nineteen eighty three and Billy was eighty six, I figured
there may be some kind of a record that Billy
was interviewed, just like many other people that were around
the Apollo gym.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Which, as we heard from Mark Lopez, would have carried
with it considerable risk.
Speaker 8 (06:23):
People were very afraid because they knew not he was
a hardcore gangster, but he was an ex cop and
he had friends still on the force, So it was like, well,
if he runted a law how do you know that
one of his buddies, I'm going to look it back
to him, and then you're in trouble.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Danny hoped the truth would lie somewhere in the forty
year old case file.
Speaker 6 (06:49):
All I could do was just read every single piece
of paper and at least the case fall that I have,
and look for any indication that Billy was interviewed.
Speaker 7 (06:58):
And I really couldn't find anything.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
According to the case file kept by a mirror MARPDI,
there was no evidence that Billy had ever cooperated with investigators.
Of course, no record on file didn't mean Billy was
never approached.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
It may just mean that Billy was smart.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Enough to keep it a secret, and Danny, he's smart
enough to know that not everything makes it.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
On paper and into an investigative file.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
I was able to speak to a couple of the
detectives that previously worked in these cases back in the
eighties and asked them, and they also said that they
don't have any recollection Billy being interviewed.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
So what if Billy didn't go to police, it was
still likely he had heard the rumors about Gilan Burt,
possibly even their involvement in the triple murder on Danger Road,
and that by itself would have been dangerous information to possess.
Speaker 6 (08:00):
I think that Billy did know. I think that anyone
that spent any amount of time over at the Apollo
gym would either hear the rumors or maybe even see
the meetings, or even hear certain conversations by being there.
The odds of them hearing about certain crimes, I think
is possible.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
This was confirmed by other Apollo members like Mark Lopez
and Dave Fasano, guys who had more than an inkling
of what was going on, but who were wise enough
to mind their own business.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
So what made them different from Billy?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Why target Billy and not the other guys at the gym?
Speaker 6 (08:44):
Best guess, and this is speaking with a lot of
people that were very close with Billy. I think Billy
was less willing to play ball and keep his mouth shut.
I think that Billy was probably a little outspoken at
the atrocities that he had heard about.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Mark Lopez tends to agree.
Speaker 8 (09:04):
I don't think Billy was necessarily tied up in anything specifically.
I think he may have just inadvertently been exposed to
some information and the powers that be thought, why take
a chance, right, It's just one more guy that's going
to need to.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Go one person.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Danny thinks Billy may have talked to his friend, Mitch Hall.
The evidence was circumstantial but persuasive, and I said.
Speaker 9 (09:33):
Mitch, don't can involve with those type of people.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Mitch's sister also remembers Mitch telling her that he was
willing to go to the police and tell them what
he knew.
Speaker 9 (09:46):
And he went to the police station and he was
killed the next day.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Billy's sister, Laurie, was also convinced that the timing of
Mitch's murder was no coincidence.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I really think there had to be a rat, a
dirty rat in a police department.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Even a CoP's son like Danny Smith, whose father worked
in law enforcement for nearly thirty years, knows that South
Florida in the nineteen eighties was plagued with police corruption.
The easy money from drugs flowing into South America proved
irresistible to a lot of people, including some members of
(10:29):
law enforcement. In fact, the result of a massive crackdown
on police corruption in nineteen eighty seven revealed that up
to ten percent of the entire MIAMIPD had been suspended, fired,
or incarcerated for their involvement in criminal activity. Whether that
corruption reached the much smaller departments in Brier County or
(10:50):
MI or mar.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
We don't know.
Speaker 6 (10:53):
I obviously want to give the investigators or the police
officers and the tecers back then the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 7 (10:59):
However, is it possible? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (11:01):
Absolutely, And the only way that I could verify that
is just to legitimately read every word of every document
that was provided to me and see if there's anything there,
and then moreover me or speak with the previous detectives
and just ask ask the question.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
If Danny could find the evidence that Mitch Hall had
indeed filed a report or met with anyone at Mirror,
Marpadi or Browie County Sheriff's office, it would go a
long way to casting suspicion on someone within law enforcement
being complicit in his murder. But according to Danny, there
was no record that Mitch had ever met with.
Speaker 6 (11:42):
Police now it happened the crimes were eighty six in
nineteen eighty seven. Is it very easy for investigators to
have that conversation with Mitch Hall and not take any
notes and just ignore it.
Speaker 7 (11:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
Absolutely, There's no way I could verify that, And if
they didn't want to tell me, then there's nothing I
can do about that. But assuming that there were notes
taken because the case file that I have on Billy
Holburn is extremely well done, well written organized. If anyone
came in and had an information on Billy's murder, that
(12:19):
that would have been written down.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Whether that was enough to quell rumors that someone within
law enforcement leaked information to Gil. Danny still doesn't know.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
Most of the rumors, if not all. The rumors were
centered around the fact that Gill was a cop, and
the assumption was that all cops know each other and
all cops share information, and there's the idea of he's
a cop. Even if he's bad, other people are gonna
cover for him because he's a cop.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Danny has been in uniform for twenty seven years and
he knows as well as anybody about the sworn loyalty
that exists between people who every day put their lives
into each other's hands. And he can also understand the
suspicion surrounding his fellow brothers in blue.
Speaker 6 (13:12):
It's a society. Police officers have their own family. There's
good cops and bad cops out there. Obviously, again, it
would be naive on my part to blindly say that
there was never any corruption at any level. I feel
that it was incumbent upon me to go through and
check to see if there was any internal affairs investigations
or any statements that show corruption, because it does happen,
(13:36):
let's be honest with each other.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
But that search also yielded no evidence that any member
of law enforcement was ever suspected of being complicit in
Billy or Mitch's murder.
Speaker 6 (13:49):
There was no indication that there was an internal affairs
investigation on anyone that related to helping Gil.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Or helping the Apollo, or saying anything that can be hearing.
Put the investigators on a different path on purpose. So
there were never any substantiated rumors naving specific comps or
improper behavior.
Speaker 7 (14:11):
But they were there. The rumors were around. Everyone around
it knew it.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
Unfortunately, no solid answers were found in the documentation, and unfortunately,
in a cold case, that's all I've gotten for now.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
The rumors proved to be just that prosecutors sending imperado
things that even for Florida cops, there was a limit
to their loyalty.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
For the most part, law enforcement is loyal to their
own But I think once they saw what he was
charged with and everything, it was a different story.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
But considering the client tele at the Apollo, Fernandez and
Christie probably didn't need a crooked cop to keep threats
at bay.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
They had enough eyes and ears right there in the gym, including.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
One long time friend who may have set the stage
for Billy's murder. By nineteen eighty six, Billy Halburn had
left his job as a paramedic at the Hollandale Fire
(15:21):
Department due to a lingering back injury.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Billy told his sister Laurie.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
That he was going to deploy his charm and good
looks into a new career in sales, namely the trade
of fine art and rare coins. The career change suited him,
after all, South Florida in the mid eighties seemed to
be flushed with easy money, and Billy was eager to
(15:46):
get a piece of it.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I think Billy probably still had been for Nickolie ever
made when he died.
Speaker 7 (15:55):
She was so frugal.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
He had a paper of a pad like that of
all the money that people owed him.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
But according to Laurie, she did notice signs that the
rare coin trade might have given way to another more
lucrative business.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Then Billy and Jimmy got involved with I thought our
dealing or you know, I'm not even sure what I
thought they were doing, but I didn't really think about
it because we all grew up together.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Were there a couple of guys that said that you
might have been selling a little bit of drugs here
and there?
Speaker 7 (16:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (16:29):
Oh huge death last Yeah, I mean, we're not an idiot,
and safe to say it paid a lot better than coins.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
They were making money. Oh my god, the money was
sick that you would that they were making. And I
really always felt that he would talk about it too much.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
But according to Laurie, Billy was never long for that world.
Speaker 11 (17:00):
He bought property up in Melbourne Beach at nineteen eighty
four and it was extream, you know, make the money,
get out, go up to Melbourne, beef bee surfer, live
on REGI, you know, live my life.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
But he would never get the chance.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Instead, he was killed in his home in October of
nineteen eighty six. Laurie realizes now that he's pleased to
leave town before his death may have been more than
just an idle daydream.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Billy had left me, you know, money, He had a will,
and when he went to some and do the will,
it's like Lord by come on, we're going to bob
our childhood friend to drop a will. I'm like, get
out of here, and we're not going to get away.
Speaker 11 (17:52):
No, I'm serious, lord, come on.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Was Billy's wonderlust desire to leave South Florida to another
paradise up the coast, or wasn't motivated by fear of
what could happen if he stayed.
Speaker 12 (18:08):
Let me tell you, I remember that when I lived
with him, he came to the door my bedroom at
the front, the front door, and he opened up my door, Floria,
I love you.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
If anything happened to me. She knows that I love you,
I'm like, and he caught me off gard like what
are you talking about?
Speaker 12 (18:27):
And he ran off, like where are you going?
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Looking back, Laurie now thinks he sounded like a guy
who was in too deep and was fearing for his life,
and she thinks she knows who's to blame. After Billy
was murdered, Laurie was shaken by a memory of walking
into a tense meeting at Billy's town home.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Well, I came over one day and I walked in.
I'm like, Jimmy, like, what do you what he doing here?
Speaker 3 (18:58):
By this time, Jimmy high Note was a regular member
of Gil's shakedown crew. We can only speculate as to
why one of Billy's suspected killers was in his town
home just weeks before Billy was killed.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Was Jimmy warning him of imminent danger?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Or was he casing the location on orders from Gil
and Burt?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
And I think with the art pretending to be into
the art maybe or coin collecting, but maybe that was
the way he got in comfortable with Billy on behalf
of them.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
I think maybe, whatever the reason, after Billy was killed,
Laurie said she knew it was no innocent.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Visit, you know. Then I knew Jimmy had to be involved.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Which brings us back to that empty safe in Billy's
bedroom and the possibility that it contained not rare coins,
but what Dave Fersano called the best coke in town.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
I know that some people say that Billy was ripped
for drugs. Some people say that he was ripped for
coins and art.
Speaker 7 (20:08):
I heard that rumor a lot.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
I did, and after a year and a half of
looking into it and trying to either confirm or deny
those rumors, I feel that the rumors were.
Speaker 7 (20:22):
Just that.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
No matter what evidence Danny had turned up about Billy's
source of income, he remains convinced Billy's.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Murder was no robbery, It was a hit.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
The comment thoughts and ideas that I got from those
closest to Billy, Gil, Harry, Collier, Apollo, Jim was that
Billy was killed because he knew or overheard or was
told something about murders that occurred or who could have
been involved in those murders. And I honestly think that
people just were not comfortable with Billy having.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
This information, information that threatened the illicit livelihood of Fernandez
and Christi, but also that of his old friend Jimmy Heinault,
whose betrayal may have resulted in Billy's murder.
Speaker 13 (21:16):
The concept of clearing a case exceptionally is relatively simple,
and what it means is that the prosecutor, in conjunction
with law enforcement who investigated the matter, is convinced that
there is probable cause to charge someone with the crime. However,
for some reason, it is either an opportune or impossible
(21:40):
to charge the suspect with the offense, and the way
that most frequently occurs is that the suspect is dead
at the time probable cause is developed, as so happened
in this case.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Brian Porter is a veteran prosecutor who is not associated
with this case. He is a legal scholar who has
been part of several investigations I've reported on.
Speaker 13 (22:04):
I've been the elected prosecutor in my jurisdiction for over
eleven years, and I've made exceptional case closure calls on
any number of occasions. And really what it boils down
to is it's the same exact analysis that I would
make if a detective came to me and asked me
to charge somebody with murder. It's not a lesser standard
(22:25):
in my mind, It's the same exact standard.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Danny had untangled as much as he could with the
given evidence, and he believed he had a convincing version
of what happened to Billy Halpern. But still he had
to convince Broward County's top homicide prosecutor that he was right.
Speaker 6 (22:48):
Writing the close up memo to the State Attorney's office
was really an opportunity for me to take all of
the work that I've done and shrink it to five
or six seven page memo giving the bullet points as
to what I found, and why I believe that this
(23:09):
case should be solved.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
The keystone in his argument was the striking similarity between
the Hall Drought murders and Billy Halpern's murder.
Speaker 13 (23:22):
In this case, a great deal of the case relies
on what we would call common scheme or plan evidence.
In other words, is it very obvious that these offenses
had to be related, because the individual facts that each
murder are so similar in nature that it kind of
just defies logic that they weren't related.
Speaker 7 (23:40):
Neither had fourth century.
Speaker 6 (23:43):
The same materials were used to bind all three victims
in the two cases, the binding, the way that they
were bound was similar or even identical, and the use
of a sharp edged tool, which neither weapon was found,
so we can't verify exactly if it was the same weapon,
but the modus opera and I, or the way that
(24:07):
these crimes were committed were literally almost identical.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Danny went on to argue that because Harry Collier's fingerprint
was proof he killed Paul and Drought, then it stands
to reason that he was also the man who killed
Billy Halpern.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
I was able to write it up and say that
if Harry Collier were alive today, then I would feel
comfortable taking this to grand jury, and even more comfortable
or confident that we would give an indictment.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
You may be asking, as I did, wasn't this case
against Collier based entirely on circumstantial evidence?
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Again, here's veteran prosecutor Brian Porter.
Speaker 13 (24:50):
Unfortunately, in my opinion, television and the movies have led
way people to kind of equate the phrase circumstantial evidence
with weak case, and that's most definitely not the situation.
The only type of direct evidence that actually exists would
be either eyewitness testimony, a confession by the suspect, or
(25:11):
perhaps nowadays, if you had video of the actual offense
being committed. And to be quite honest, because most murderers
do not confess to their murders, and because most murderers
do not commit murders in front of video cameras, and
because murderers do their best to kill people when there
are no eyewitnesses, the vast majority of murder cases an
investigation that I've been involved in my career require us
(25:34):
to build a case from circumstantial evidence, And if I
were reluctant to do so, there would be a lot
of very angry victim families if I told them, hey,
I've got a pretty strong case, but it's all circumstantial
and therefore I can't charge the murderer.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
After nearly two years on Billy Halpin's murder case, Danny
submitted his memo to the State Attorney's office.
Speaker 13 (25:55):
In the end, the evidence in this case is very compelling,
and I think prosecutor would be duty bound to close
the case exceptionally.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
But we would have to wait and see.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
I submitted the memo.
Speaker 6 (26:24):
In reality, it was probably a couple hours, but it
felt like four years. But I got a response from
the State Attorney's office and they confirmed my findings and
they agreed with me.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
The state attorney agreed that there was enough evidence to
charge Harry Collier with Billy Helper's murder, but because Collier
was dead and unable to stand trial, the state attorney
would exceptionally clear the case. Danny was confident in his
conclusion that Harry Collier killed Billy halpern.
Speaker 6 (27:04):
So obviously I was happy. I was happy for the case.
I was happy for Laurie. It was short lived, honestly,
because as happy as I was for Laurie and the
helping family and all their friends. Honestly, my mind immediately
went to Harry Collier's widow and his son.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Holly's wife Miami, had cooperated, her son had given DNA,
and they had held on to hope that Harry was
not the man they suspected him of being.
Speaker 6 (27:43):
I tend to view them as victims in this case
also because they didn't ask for any of this, and
this information is going to come out and he's essentially
going to victimize his family again from beyond the grave.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
But as a detective, his was still first and foremost
to Billy and his surviving family. And after thirty seven years,
it was finally time to give lour some good news.
Speaker 6 (28:13):
May fourteenth, twenty twenty four. It is one oh one
in the afternoon. I'm just about to go sit down
with Lori Halpern and do really one of the good
things that we get to do as homicide detectives, which
is to speak with victim's family and give them a resolution,
(28:33):
give them some kind of comfort that we've identified the
person that's involved, for the person responsible for their loved
ones murder.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Laurie Halpurn has been intimately involved in Danny's investigation since
the beginning, so no news was going to come completely
as a shock, but it was important to Danny to
deliver the state attorney's decision in person.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
What I have here is a memo that I wrote
to our state Attorney's office. This is what we have,
this is the evidence, this is what my conclusion is,
and then I leave it up to them.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Danny summarizes his case, including the disappointing reality of the
inability to use DNA to id Billy's killer.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
She had no DNA for Gil in there. The DNA
that we had was so degraded. And to answer your question, Gil,
I cannot say that he was involved. I'm not saying
he wasn't involved, but I can't prove that he had
any knowledge or he had any involvement of being there.
But I can say that Harry Collier was involved, He
(29:51):
was there, took part in it.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
What about Jimmy hin Note.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Jimmy h Note is the same for me as Gil.
I believe that he probably was there, but I don't
have enough that I can definitively say that, yes, Jimmy
was there, Gil was there, or even in Mike Carbone.
I can't say any of them just because the science
isn't there.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
But despite the degraded DNA, Danny believed his case against
Harry Collier was rock solid.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
So for me as an investigator, I was able to
do this document, send it over to the State Attorney's
office and say, if Harry Callier were alive today, I
would be taken him to Grand Jerry and I would
probably be arresting him on the evidence that I have.
Speaker 7 (30:37):
And they said, we.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Agree, we agree.
Speaker 14 (30:42):
And for nothing though, I mean, if he didn't believe it,
truly sad you kick everything away from my fit parents
for devastated and for nothing.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
How can you kill people like that and not even
think anything of it?
Speaker 1 (31:06):
You're a freaking evil, sir.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
He's pure evil.
Speaker 14 (31:10):
How do you get involved with Jimmy?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I know?
Speaker 1 (31:13):
So Collier was not from down here, which is why
really not many people know him.
Speaker 6 (31:20):
He was from the northeast, Okay, and he had ties to.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Burt Christie. But it looks like he was the guy
that they called and they said we need something done.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
He was the hit man.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Was he was a hit man? Yeah, he was a violent,
violent man.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Here's the thing about solving a murder case. It can
answer long unanswered questions. It can unburden survivors of uncertainty
surrounding a loved one's death, maybe even deliver a sense
of justice, but it can't bring a victim back, and
the end is always bittersweet.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
I believe we've proven that Harry Collier was a principal
and was involved in Billy's murder. He's dead and there's
really not a whole lot that can be done. But
at the very least it'll give you a little bit
of something.
Speaker 14 (32:19):
I hope no my parents be happy to know that
you cared enough to do this.
Speaker 7 (32:30):
Well.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
I'll be honest, I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't
get a live person to charge now. I really wanted to, but.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
It wouldn't matter even if Gil didn't. You had proof
that Gil did it. I mean, he's Gurdi in jail
for life. What's going to happen Nothing, I have.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
To admit I shared some of Laurie's frustrations about why
it took nearly forty years to get real answers, but
it is a credit to Danny that he remained steadfast
in his commitment to what he could prove, not what
he may have believed to be true.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
But here again, I felt it was important to put
this officially.
Speaker 7 (33:16):
I say it is.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
My opinion that Billy heard mention of the triple murder
in nineteen eighty three that was committed by Gil Fernandez.
I mentioned that I agree with the previous investigators that
Fernandez orchestrated and potentially participated in the murders of not
only Billy, but Mitch Sharonda, Jimmy Heina, and Harry Pollier.
(33:41):
I don't have jurisdiction on those cases, so I can't
pursue them, but I am working with other detectives that
have now reopened those cases.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Really, the fact was that Billy's case may have been cleared,
but that does not mean it has been closed. The
DNA sample retrieved from the help and crime scene may
have been inadequate to ideas suspect, but there was no
telling where the science would be in a few years
and what it may reveal about who else was in
(34:10):
the room when Collier killed Billy.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
You got my carbone DNA?
Speaker 9 (34:16):
You do?
Speaker 11 (34:17):
I do?
Speaker 1 (34:18):
And that was a big one. That was a big
one because if I couldn't get him on this, at
the very least, maybe I can help another agency or another.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Ida great if he has something to do with it.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
So indirectly Billy's investigations, he could.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Help open the other rights are yeah, that would be great.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
After Danny's visit with Laurie, we discussed whether after nearly
two years of an investigation and successfully clearing the Helper
and cold case, he still had any lingering, doubts or
uncertainty about his conclusions.
Speaker 6 (34:53):
I was happy that I was able to ensure that Laurie,
after this is all said, Laura helped and has more
answers than she has questions. After all these years, I
know there's more to the story, and there are certain
things that I just simply was unable to get an
answer to. I gave everything that I had, but I
(35:14):
still feel that it's slightly incomplete because there's just answers
that I don't have.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Many of those questions revolve around the role of Gil
Fernandez or Christi, and even the unseen forces that may
have been behind the order to kill Billy.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
I would have loved to prove that additional people were involved,
and I do feel very confident.
Speaker 7 (35:38):
That there were other people involved.
Speaker 6 (35:41):
But at this stage in the investigation, I can only
go as far as the evidence will take me, and
in this case, the evidence took me to an ending.
I just I don't think it's the ending. I think
it's an ending, but not the ending.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
This was also the story of DNA, its promise and
its limitations.
Speaker 6 (36:04):
And at the very beginning, every single piece of evidence
that I asked to be tested, I was, in my
mind positive we were going to come back with a
hit and a match.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
The discovery of untested DNA at Billy's crime scene felt
destined for an instant match and swift resolution to the investigation.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
But of course that proved not to be the case.
Speaker 6 (36:30):
And unfortunately it was a It was a punch in
the gut every time I got those results.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
But those disappointing results had a positive effect too, in
that it forced Danny to lean on what he did best,
the research, the interviews, and the old school gumshoe detective
work that helped piece together the narrative of the crime.
And while the DNA results did not prove who was
(36:58):
present at Billy's murder, it did not disprove any theories either.
Speaker 6 (37:04):
Just because someone's DNA is not on a piece of
evidence does not mean that they were not involved. I
think a lot of people will hear that, oh, well,
Gill's DNA was not located on the binding, so that
means he wasn't involved, And no, that's not the case.
I'm not saying that he was or wasn't because I
(37:25):
can't prove it, but I can say that it's possible
that anyone is involved even if their DNA was found
on the evidence.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Harry Collier was a hulking hit man, hired for his
muscle and his ruthless skills with a knife, and ultimately
he bears responsibility.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
For the murder of Billy Halpern.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
But Danny and I still can't shake the one thing
that everyone we talked to agreed on, and the fact
that the evidence supported Billy's killer did not work alone.
And while most of the suspects in our investigation were
long dead, there was still one man who Danny thought
might be interested in hearing the results of the investigation,
(38:14):
the man once known as the meanest cop in Miami
and the last remaining suspect in Billy's murder, Bill Fernandez.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
Cold Blooded.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
The Apollo Jim Murders is a production of iHeart Podcasts
and Authentic Wave Media. Scott Weinberger, Kevin Bennett, and Walker
LeMond are executive producers. Sabrina Sire is our line producer,
scoring sound design and mixing by Mark lamoorg Z. For
(38:56):
iHeart Podcasts, Christina Everett is executive producer, and David Wasserman
is brand marketing manager. And with special thanks to the
Miramar Police Department, Chief del Rich Moss, p Io Tanya Ardaz,
and Detective Susie Smith
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