October 22, 2025 • 26 mins
1989, a wealthy woman's murder rocks Chicago. The heat is on the CPD to close the case. When a black man from the projects becomes their star witness, everything seems resolved—until suddenly he becomes the prime suspect.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
It's two thousand and one fifty miles southwest of Chicago,
Joliet Penitentiary, ring a bell it should it's the prison
from the opening scene of Blues Brothers, Prisoner number n
eight one seven one seven. Lee Harris is tense. He's
waiting on a new selly. Lee's had his share over
(00:27):
the past decade, and it's always a craft shoot a
space seven feet by four feet with a bunk bed
and an open toilet, intimately shared with another convict. There's
a few ways this could go as far as Lee's concerned.
Ain't none of them good? You can be sure Lee
did not expect someone like Robert Chatler to walk in
(00:48):
on the outside. These men would have never crossed paths. Lee,
a black man and career scammer raised in Chicago's most
notorious projects, Now pushing fifty. Robert, white Jewish kid from
the suburbs, half his age, an odd ball who sought
solace rescuing insects and animals. How was this gonna work?
(01:11):
In short order? Robert would drive Lead to his wits end.
He chained smoked from sun up to sundown, all while
playing radio dub beetles cassettes on repeat. Lee hated smoking,
and let's just say the Beatles weren't exactly his flavor.
But all of that would fade away because on that day,
Lee Harris was about to meet his future best friend,
brother from another and the key to his freedom from
(01:38):
iHeart Podcasts. I'm Dax stelin Ross and this is crying wolf.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
White victim, female, pretty wealthy black defendant. I mean, as
soon as I saw it, I'm like, fuck me, this
is gonna be bad.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
He says the police are his friends, and then that's it.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
They turn on it.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I get nineteen years killing somebody I have never seen.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
They got the wrong.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
That at Lee's mouth was Lee's downfall.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Along with dirty call.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
There's a list of police officers who deserve a special
place in hell. As I walked down the hostage, ban said,
my home.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Address up came from the world of How the Techniques?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Why didn't be a restaurant of grant right now?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
How do you want?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Don't you fear? Guys?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I realized from the beginning killed Dana Fidler and that
person's still up here.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Episode one, The Right Guy. It's the late eighties. Paula
Abdul and Public Enemy are in heavy rotation on MTV.
Michael Jordan has yet to win a title. Some think
he never will. Oprah is still on our way to
becoming an afternoon I. Lee Harris is thirty something living
(03:02):
in Chicago's Near North Side. He's got a little boy
he can't wait to teach the intricacies of softball. His
own prospects aren't so bright. By his own admission, he's
a petty crook running out of hustles. The one thing
Lee does have going for him, besides his son, The
thing that sets him apart is his charm. He could
and would talk to anyone.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
I remember him walking up to us. You'd see a
crew and it'd say, Hey, how you doing. Oh hey,
mister Jordan, what you guys doing here?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
That's Bob Jordan, And if you're from Chicago, you might
recognize his commanding voice. Bob's a news veteran with a
career spanning six decades. Back in the eighties, he was
a general assignment reporter for the TV station WG in Chicago.
Every day he'd gather his film crew and had to
cover the city's biggest story of the day.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Lee was not afraid to step out and be seen
be recognized, be known. If we're out doing a story,
we'd want to find someone whom we could interview and say,
you know, what's the problem of the day. People are
many times afraid of a camera crew.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
But Lee wasn't. Living in the projects meant the media
was usually there for one of two reasons, drugs or violence,
and often both meant they were looking for a good SoundBite.
For some residents, the site of reporters prompted a bline
in the opposite direction. Being so amenable made Lee stand out.
(04:38):
He stood out for other reasons too.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
I've been trying to think of words to describe him.
Impetuous is kind of a word, because he was outside
the norm. He was probably smarter than the average kid
he ran around with because he knew how to work
(05:02):
the system. And if I do this and do that,
I can game the system. I might be able to
use it to my advantage. But he was unpolished. He
was vulnerable to his own recklessness.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
The same unabashed approach Lee took with journalists like Bob
Jordan extended to local beat cops too.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
He was very affable, he was very friendly, he was
very you know, he respected as we were the police,
but we respected, you know, we had different lifestyles.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
This is Mary Siwak and her partner Joseph Roberts Signoretti,
but he also goes by Bob. Back in the day,
Lee was a recurring character on their beat.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
He's a scam artist. There's an alley off of Rush Street.
They call it drug Ali Lee. He would shell fake drugs,
burn eggs.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You know the number dried herbs instead of weed. A
regano meant whatever a hustler can entice some thrill seeking
inner city tourists with.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
And all the suburbanites would go across and walk, you know,
so a black guy coming up and telling, you know, saying, hey,
do you want anything.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
And more often than not they'd fall for it. But
once a sale was made, real drugs or not, Bob
would have to step in.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Sorry, Lee, you're gonna have to go to jail or
or sometimes I just shag him out of there, and
you tell him get out of here because you don't
want to hassle with them and bring in and stuck
while he did, don't want to touch them, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
So it was a funny kind of dance back then
between Lee and the police. Sometimes after a sale, Lee
would hang around to get arrested on purpose. A tip
to the precinct with his cop piles could be more
pleasant than the wrath of a returning customer.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
But if he didn't do what he did, then we
wouldn't do what we did right.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
He was job security.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
This love hate triangle between locals, the press, and the
police could have typified daily life in any project. But
Lee didn't live in just any project. He lived in
one of the most infamous of them all, Cabrini Green.
You've likely heard of Cabrini, even if you couldn't point
to it on a map. I certainly couldn't. It's where
(07:25):
the Colthood horror candy Man was set. It's had countless
mentions in Chicago rap, and it was the backdrop for
the classic black sitcom Good Times from the seventies. The
title it was ironic in case you're wondering. When the
first Kabrini rowhouses and towers went up in the nineteen
forties and fifties, they represented optimism, the potential of public
(07:47):
housing to provide quality homes for all. It was certainly
a step up from the slum land it replaced Little Hell.
The locals used to call it, who at the time
were a mix of Irish, Swedish and Italian immigrants. But
by the nineteen eighties, when Lee lived there, things had
changed a lot. The projects had become a new kind
(08:09):
of poverty, poverty of gangs, drugs, and violence, and Cabrini's
buildings were now exclusively housing black residents.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Most of the police officers didn't want, even want nothing
to do with Kabrini, but it's wild.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
There was a different world. Crack cocaine was rife, controlled
and fought over by the Mickey Cobras or the gangster disciples,
some of Cabrini's most notorious gangs. Oddly enough, none of
that phased Bob Ora Mary.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We got along with all the gangs, the ones that
hated and shot at each other. We were like their
aunties or something. So it was an unusual relationship we had,
and Lee was one of those people.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
To be clear, Lee was not in a gang, a
gang banger, as they used to call it. What's interesting, though,
is that he somehow managed to get along with them all.
He wasn't afraid of being seen. He also knew how
to disappear into the crowd. Make himself invisible or if
nothing else non threatening. More than anything, Lee was a survivor,
(09:11):
which meant being both nothing in particular and a bit
of everything. This showed up in his various occupations. Being
that Kabrini was right next door to some of Chicago's
most affluent neighborhoods, Lee would sometimes dabble in more legitimate pursuits,
like window cleaning for the luxury high rises, and when
window washing and burn bags didn't cut it, there was
(09:32):
always a quick buck to be made sharing information with
the cops.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
We would talk to him about things, Hey Lee, do
you know about this or that? Or we say hey Lee,
if you hear about anything.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
But an inexplicable tragedy a mere few blocks from Kaberni
was about to shake up the natural order of things
and send chills throughout the whole of Chicago. How people
(10:08):
endure Chicago winters has never made sense to me. A
place that hovers between bone cold and brick for months
on end. Then you experience the summer, and suddenly it
all makes sense. Chicagoans live for the summer. It's when
(10:30):
the city exhales, when the frozen shorelines of Lake Michigan
thaw into tanning mecchas dotted with beach bums and fitness diehards,
and by night becomes stages for music, fireworks, and joy.
Summer in Chicago isn't just a season, It's a resurrection.
Summer nineteen eighty nine was no different. Then came the
(10:53):
night of June eighteenth.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
A twenty four year old woman lies in a coma tonight,
the victim of an execution style shooting, apparently near her
home on the Gold Coast.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Dana Peitler was smart, attractive, from money as promising as
they make them in America. She had just completed an
internship at one of America's top banks and was about
to begin graduate studies. Moments after returning home from a
night out celebrating with friends, she's forced into a nearby alley,
shot in the back of the head, and left for dead.
(11:31):
The motive is unclear, although police find two ATM receipts
in Dana's wallet. The time stamps indicate the withdrawals happened
after she had returned home. Patrol cop Mary Siwac remembers
it well.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
She's from wealthy family down in the Gold Coast, right
by Astor Street, which is the biggest money street where
the governor lives, you know, right where all the concentration
of money is. So is a heater case.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
It was an instant heater and yes, it's exactly what
you think it is. The heat was on. This kind
of thing just didn't happen on the Gold Coast to
a white woman. Not only was it one of the
richest neighborhoods in Chicago, it was one of the richest
neighborhoods in the entire country. Reporter Bob Jordan lived there
(12:18):
around that time. He could attest to its bona fides.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
There was an air of security and you never felt
ill at ease. So when Dana is discovered in this alley,
it was a tremendous story because it broke the calm.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
The Dana Fightler case becomes a real life horror story
that everyone is following. The media descend daily on Northwestern
Memorial Hospital to get updates from Dana's neurosurgeon, and alongside
fears for Dana, Chicago's residents have worked themselves into a
kind of moral panic. ATMs are still a weird new
invention in the eighties, Was this new technology safe? What
(13:07):
was being compromised in the name of convenience. We found
some TV footage from the time where a police superintendent
no Less tells a reporter armed police won't use them.
What in the devil are you guys doing standing at
an ATM. And to top it all, tongues are wagging
about the perpetrator. Surely this crime had been committed by
a black man and was it only money he was
(13:29):
after first days, then weeks pass and Dana holds on,
The city holds its breath. The police chase down leads
to feed up the chain of command. The media scramble
for tidbits to satiate its audiences. Bob Jordan had a
front row seat to it all. As news crews.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
We were in the area doing that story daily, trying
to do updates, trying to find ways to work the
story with new angles and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Then out of nowhere, a woman who was out walking
her dog the night of the incident comes forward. She
has some vital new information. Moments before the attack, she
saw Dana being led down the street by three men,
three black men. After weeks of waiting for a break,
the CPD finally has something and then just as news
(14:25):
from the witness becomes known, Dana's family makes an unusual move.
They put up a sizeable reward. Might the promise of
hard cast shake loose some new leads, jog a few
memories The fightler's one answers, so does the city.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
When the mayor is getting static from his constituents, then
he calls the police chief and says, what the hell
is going on with this fightler story? How close are
you in getting this wrapped up? And then the police
chief calls his neighborhood commander says, how soon are you
getting it wrapped up? Net pressure all the way to
(15:04):
the patrolman is find somebody, make some arrests.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Armed with this new information from the dog walker, the
CPD puts every cop in the vicinity on high alert.
Even beat cops like Mary and Bob get drafted. They're
summoned to an emergency briefing and their orders find any
scrap of information they possibly can about that night. And
this is not going to be a collaboration effort across
(15:30):
the force. This is cop against cop. Whoever brings home
the biggest scraps. It's the biggest prize.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
It was very doggy dog yeah, And if you want
to be a police you get the bad guys done.
You've got to do battle. You've got to compete.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
As Mary and Bob step out of the precinct, they
know exactly where to head. First, the streets.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
There'd be thousands of people out there, you know, in
the summertime. Everybody got there, everybody, and there's always somebody
that saw all those people all day long, you know
what I mean, somebody always would see what happened.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Someone perhaps like Lee Harris.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
He could have been there, Yeah, he could have been there.
He was a contender, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Turns out finding Lee doesn't require much effort at all.
Marry and Bob bump into him almost immediately. They fill
him in about the crime, but also the reward twenty
five large for anyone who can provide information that leads
to an arrest.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
We're the ones that totally about it. And back then
there was a lot of money, and he was a
money guy. He was a you know, kind guy. Five
thousand dollars okay, you know, I mean, there was a
motive for him to want to find out about it
because in his situation, you know, there was good money.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Right, always a man to work numerous angles. Lee has
also been talking to some other cops who worked the
Gabrini beat. Old friends, in fact partners, James Ward and
John McHugh. These guys went way back. They used to
help Lee out when he got in trouble with the law.
(17:18):
They'd loan of money sometimes. They even attended Lee's wedding
back in the day. Ward and mceu are much closer
to the case than Bob and Mary. They're working directly
for the lead on the Fightler case, Detective Richard Zuley,
a tough talking cop known for making cases and making
them stick. They tell Lee some enticing insider information. They've
(17:41):
got three suspects in the case, well known criminals from
the area. The trigger man went by the street name Cheese.
But with no witnesses placing them there, there's no chance
of making any arrests. Lee gets thinking. A twenty five
thousand dollars reward has a whole lot of burn bags
and cleaning windows. He could start a new life, move
(18:02):
his son out of Cabrini. His mind starts worrying. Cabrini,
Green and the Gold Coast are just around the corner
from each other. We're talking less than a mile walking distance,
and the three suspects are also from the projects. It
will be believable that Lee knew them. He thinks, maybe
I was there the night Dana was attacked. Maybe I
(18:24):
did see something or someone. Lee decides he does know
something about the knight of the crime, and he knows
who he needs to speak to about it. He head
straight to Area six to find Ward, McHugh and their boss,
Detective Richard Zulie. Mary was unimpressed.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Those detectives are used to be called Area six. They
were all primnanas. I have to admit he hurt my
feelings a little bit because I thought that we had
a rapport and I thought, you know, because it was
a hitter case and he would have liked to been
the one that, you know, solved it, because there is
an elation to solving a case, getting the right guy,
(19:11):
you know, solving it.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
And that was the last time that Marry and Bob
ever spoke to Lee.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
See once he got involved like that, we disengaged because
why would we be involved with him.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Ward and mceue are all ears. Dana is still in
a coma, fighting for her life. They want to nail
this case before anyone else does, and now it looks
like they might have a reliable witness putting their suspects
in the frame. It's a win win. Lee is a
shoe win for the reward money and the police get
their suspects and maybe some promotions as well. Warden mceu
(19:48):
are at the ready to help Lee prepare his words
ahead of making his formal statement to Detective Zuli. I
was having a coffee and dunkin Donuts when I saw
three black guys running out.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Of the yawn.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Quickest twenty five k Lee would ever make. But a
few days later, his friends Ward and mcew ask if
he wouldn't mind coming back for another statement. A little
more detail would be really helpful. Lee thinks, sure, why not.
What starts out is just one statement soon becomes two,
then three, four, five, six, and each time Ward and
(20:24):
mcew reminding Lee of some helpful details from the night
Dana was shot. The exact alley She was shot in,
a black garage door an ivy covered wall. Before long,
Lee is not just offering peripheral scraps of information about
the night of the crime. He's the key to it all,
the state star witness. So much so he's moved out
(20:45):
of Cabrini for his own safety, all on the taxpayer's
dollar when win right. But Ward and mcew are hungry
for even more information. They need Lee to be closer
to the action. Maybe he was part of the gang
that at hacked Dana. They assure Lee not to worry.
This is all just so they can nail Cheese and
(21:06):
the other members of the gang. Detective Zuli gives Lee
his word and so and yet another statement. Lee tells
Zuli he was the fourth member of the gang. The
police are getting closer and closer to closing the case,
and those statements from Lee keep on coming. In total,
(21:28):
he gives twenty two and then on the tenth of July,
three weeks after the attack.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
After lingering in a coma for twenty one days, Dana
Fightler was taken off life support.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Systems and died. Police are giving out very little information.
They're being very tight lip. This is a high priority
case and they're being very careful.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
It's a tragedy for the Fightler family and for the CPD.
The pressure is really on. They are now the hunt
for a murderer, and thanks to Lee, they finally have
the evidence that they need to make that arrest. Bob
(22:18):
Jordan is at work one morning, waiting on his assignment
for the day when the news breaks Dana Feitler's murderer
has been found. But when he hears the name, it
comes as a big shock. Turns out it's someone he
already knows, Lee Harris.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
When they arrested Lee, I remember saying to my camera, man, hey,
you know this guy they arrested. We've interviewed him, We've
seen him around. He was always around.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
The switch around is baffling. The CPD's star witness has
become their prime suspect. But in the end, what choice
did they have? All those statements Lee was giving, all
twenty two of them. With each one he was clearly
incriminating himself. And then, to top it all, the dog
walker that saw Dana moments before the attack. She's identified Lee,
(23:14):
not Cheese or any other members of the gang in
a lineup. Solving a heater case is like winning a championship,
but instead of a parade, you get a press conference,
a really big one. After weeks of waiting, wondering, and
wild speculation, the entire press corps summoned camera's ready Mike's hot.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Every TV station was there, all the newspapers, every one.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Bob Jordan and his cameraman Mike elbow their way to
the front. Everyone is thirsty for the money shot, the
purp walk, that moment when the cuffed perpetrator, flanked by
police officers, is finally revealed to the public.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
I can only imagine what that must be like to
come through a door and face a whole wall of
probably ten or twelve TV cameras in lights, that's how
big a story. It was just the sound alone of
the flashbulbs going off and the cameras rolling, and these
(24:18):
were noisy cameras back in those days, and you know,
there was a cacophony of sound in that room and
the lights flashing and reporters of screaming, Lee, did you
do it? Did you kill her?
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Did you shoot her?
Speaker 4 (24:33):
You know?
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Where were you?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Bob manages to hold his position at the front. It's
enough to get Lee and I shot.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
I remember the look on his face. It was a
look of shock and amazement, and it was like he
had seen something unreal. I don't know if he saw
I think he did. His eyes bulged and it was
(25:05):
like he wanted to say something but couldn't or was
too afraid, or was too in all of the moment,
but he ducked his head and then was escorted away.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Crying Wolf is an iHeart and Clockwork Films podcast and
association with Chalk and Blade. I'm your host Dax Devlin Ross.
The series producer is Sarah Stolart's. The senior producer is
Laura Hyde. The serious script is written by me and
by Sarah Stolart's. Bonus episodes are written and produced by
(25:48):
me Dax Devlin Ross. Our executive producers are Christina Everett
for iHeart podcasts, Naomi Harvey and Jamie Cohen for Clockwork Films,
and Ruth Arns and Jason Phipps for Chalk and Blade.
Sound design is by Kenny Koziak and George dre bing Hicks.
(26:12):
Our theme music is by Kenny Koziak. Additional production support
from Stephen Pate.
It's two thousand and one fifty miles southwest of Chicago,
Joliet Penitentiary, ring a bell it should it's the prison
from the opening scene of Blues Brothers, Prisoner number n
eight one seven one seven. Lee Harris is tense. He's
waiting on a new selly. Lee's had his share over
(00:27):
the past decade, and it's always a craft shoot a
space seven feet by four feet with a bunk bed
and an open toilet, intimately shared with another convict. There's
a few ways this could go as far as Lee's concerned.
Ain't none of them good? You can be sure Lee
did not expect someone like Robert Chatler to walk in
(00:48):
on the outside. These men would have never crossed paths. Lee,
a black man and career scammer raised in Chicago's most
notorious projects, Now pushing fifty. Robert, white Jewish kid from
the suburbs, half his age, an odd ball who sought
solace rescuing insects and animals. How was this gonna work?
(01:11):
In short order? Robert would drive Lead to his wits end.
He chained smoked from sun up to sundown, all while
playing radio dub beetles cassettes on repeat. Lee hated smoking,
and let's just say the Beatles weren't exactly his flavor.
But all of that would fade away because on that day,
Lee Harris was about to meet his future best friend,
brother from another and the key to his freedom from
(01:38):
iHeart Podcasts. I'm Dax stelin Ross and this is crying wolf.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
White victim, female, pretty wealthy black defendant. I mean, as
soon as I saw it, I'm like, fuck me, this
is gonna be bad.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
He says the police are his friends, and then that's it.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
They turn on it.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I get nineteen years killing somebody I have never seen.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
They got the wrong.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
That at Lee's mouth was Lee's downfall.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Along with dirty call.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
There's a list of police officers who deserve a special
place in hell. As I walked down the hostage, ban said,
my home.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Address up came from the world of How the Techniques?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Why didn't be a restaurant of grant right now?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
How do you want?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Don't you fear? Guys?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I realized from the beginning killed Dana Fidler and that
person's still up here.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Episode one, The Right Guy. It's the late eighties. Paula
Abdul and Public Enemy are in heavy rotation on MTV.
Michael Jordan has yet to win a title. Some think
he never will. Oprah is still on our way to
becoming an afternoon I. Lee Harris is thirty something living
(03:02):
in Chicago's Near North Side. He's got a little boy
he can't wait to teach the intricacies of softball. His
own prospects aren't so bright. By his own admission, he's
a petty crook running out of hustles. The one thing
Lee does have going for him, besides his son, The
thing that sets him apart is his charm. He could
and would talk to anyone.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
I remember him walking up to us. You'd see a
crew and it'd say, Hey, how you doing. Oh hey,
mister Jordan, what you guys doing here?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
That's Bob Jordan, And if you're from Chicago, you might
recognize his commanding voice. Bob's a news veteran with a
career spanning six decades. Back in the eighties, he was
a general assignment reporter for the TV station WG in Chicago.
Every day he'd gather his film crew and had to
cover the city's biggest story of the day.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Lee was not afraid to step out and be seen
be recognized, be known. If we're out doing a story,
we'd want to find someone whom we could interview and say,
you know, what's the problem of the day. People are
many times afraid of a camera crew.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
But Lee wasn't. Living in the projects meant the media
was usually there for one of two reasons, drugs or violence,
and often both meant they were looking for a good SoundBite.
For some residents, the site of reporters prompted a bline
in the opposite direction. Being so amenable made Lee stand out.
(04:38):
He stood out for other reasons too.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
I've been trying to think of words to describe him.
Impetuous is kind of a word, because he was outside
the norm. He was probably smarter than the average kid
he ran around with because he knew how to work
(05:02):
the system. And if I do this and do that,
I can game the system. I might be able to
use it to my advantage. But he was unpolished. He
was vulnerable to his own recklessness.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
The same unabashed approach Lee took with journalists like Bob
Jordan extended to local beat cops too.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
He was very affable, he was very friendly, he was
very you know, he respected as we were the police,
but we respected, you know, we had different lifestyles.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
This is Mary Siwak and her partner Joseph Roberts Signoretti,
but he also goes by Bob. Back in the day,
Lee was a recurring character on their beat.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
He's a scam artist. There's an alley off of Rush Street.
They call it drug Ali Lee. He would shell fake drugs,
burn eggs.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
You know the number dried herbs instead of weed. A
regano meant whatever a hustler can entice some thrill seeking
inner city tourists with.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
And all the suburbanites would go across and walk, you know,
so a black guy coming up and telling, you know, saying, hey,
do you want anything.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
And more often than not they'd fall for it. But
once a sale was made, real drugs or not, Bob
would have to step in.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Sorry, Lee, you're gonna have to go to jail or
or sometimes I just shag him out of there, and
you tell him get out of here because you don't
want to hassle with them and bring in and stuck
while he did, don't want to touch them, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
So it was a funny kind of dance back then
between Lee and the police. Sometimes after a sale, Lee
would hang around to get arrested on purpose. A tip
to the precinct with his cop piles could be more
pleasant than the wrath of a returning customer.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
But if he didn't do what he did, then we
wouldn't do what we did right.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
He was job security.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
This love hate triangle between locals, the press, and the
police could have typified daily life in any project. But
Lee didn't live in just any project. He lived in
one of the most infamous of them all, Cabrini Green.
You've likely heard of Cabrini, even if you couldn't point
to it on a map. I certainly couldn't. It's where
(07:25):
the Colthood horror candy Man was set. It's had countless
mentions in Chicago rap, and it was the backdrop for
the classic black sitcom Good Times from the seventies. The
title it was ironic in case you're wondering. When the
first Kabrini rowhouses and towers went up in the nineteen
forties and fifties, they represented optimism, the potential of public
(07:47):
housing to provide quality homes for all. It was certainly
a step up from the slum land it replaced Little Hell.
The locals used to call it, who at the time
were a mix of Irish, Swedish and Italian immigrants. But
by the nineteen eighties, when Lee lived there, things had
changed a lot. The projects had become a new kind
(08:09):
of poverty, poverty of gangs, drugs, and violence, and Cabrini's
buildings were now exclusively housing black residents.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Most of the police officers didn't want, even want nothing
to do with Kabrini, but it's wild.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
There was a different world. Crack cocaine was rife, controlled
and fought over by the Mickey Cobras or the gangster disciples,
some of Cabrini's most notorious gangs. Oddly enough, none of
that phased Bob Ora Mary.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We got along with all the gangs, the ones that
hated and shot at each other. We were like their
aunties or something. So it was an unusual relationship we had,
and Lee was one of those people.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
To be clear, Lee was not in a gang, a
gang banger, as they used to call it. What's interesting, though,
is that he somehow managed to get along with them all.
He wasn't afraid of being seen. He also knew how
to disappear into the crowd. Make himself invisible or if
nothing else non threatening. More than anything, Lee was a survivor,
(09:11):
which meant being both nothing in particular and a bit
of everything. This showed up in his various occupations. Being
that Kabrini was right next door to some of Chicago's
most affluent neighborhoods, Lee would sometimes dabble in more legitimate pursuits,
like window cleaning for the luxury high rises, and when
window washing and burn bags didn't cut it, there was
(09:32):
always a quick buck to be made sharing information with
the cops.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
We would talk to him about things, Hey Lee, do
you know about this or that? Or we say hey Lee,
if you hear about anything.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
But an inexplicable tragedy a mere few blocks from Kaberni
was about to shake up the natural order of things
and send chills throughout the whole of Chicago. How people
(10:08):
endure Chicago winters has never made sense to me. A
place that hovers between bone cold and brick for months
on end. Then you experience the summer, and suddenly it
all makes sense. Chicagoans live for the summer. It's when
(10:30):
the city exhales, when the frozen shorelines of Lake Michigan
thaw into tanning mecchas dotted with beach bums and fitness diehards,
and by night becomes stages for music, fireworks, and joy.
Summer in Chicago isn't just a season, It's a resurrection.
Summer nineteen eighty nine was no different. Then came the
(10:53):
night of June eighteenth.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
A twenty four year old woman lies in a coma tonight,
the victim of an execution style shooting, apparently near her
home on the Gold Coast.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Dana Peitler was smart, attractive, from money as promising as
they make them in America. She had just completed an
internship at one of America's top banks and was about
to begin graduate studies. Moments after returning home from a
night out celebrating with friends, she's forced into a nearby alley,
shot in the back of the head, and left for dead.
(11:31):
The motive is unclear, although police find two ATM receipts
in Dana's wallet. The time stamps indicate the withdrawals happened
after she had returned home. Patrol cop Mary Siwac remembers
it well.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
She's from wealthy family down in the Gold Coast, right
by Astor Street, which is the biggest money street where
the governor lives, you know, right where all the concentration
of money is. So is a heater case.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
It was an instant heater and yes, it's exactly what
you think it is. The heat was on. This kind
of thing just didn't happen on the Gold Coast to
a white woman. Not only was it one of the
richest neighborhoods in Chicago, it was one of the richest
neighborhoods in the entire country. Reporter Bob Jordan lived there
(12:18):
around that time. He could attest to its bona fides.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
There was an air of security and you never felt
ill at ease. So when Dana is discovered in this alley,
it was a tremendous story because it broke the calm.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
The Dana Fightler case becomes a real life horror story
that everyone is following. The media descend daily on Northwestern
Memorial Hospital to get updates from Dana's neurosurgeon, and alongside
fears for Dana, Chicago's residents have worked themselves into a
kind of moral panic. ATMs are still a weird new
invention in the eighties, Was this new technology safe? What
(13:07):
was being compromised in the name of convenience. We found
some TV footage from the time where a police superintendent
no Less tells a reporter armed police won't use them.
What in the devil are you guys doing standing at
an ATM. And to top it all, tongues are wagging
about the perpetrator. Surely this crime had been committed by
a black man and was it only money he was
(13:29):
after first days, then weeks pass and Dana holds on,
The city holds its breath. The police chase down leads
to feed up the chain of command. The media scramble
for tidbits to satiate its audiences. Bob Jordan had a
front row seat to it all. As news crews.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
We were in the area doing that story daily, trying
to do updates, trying to find ways to work the
story with new angles and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Then out of nowhere, a woman who was out walking
her dog the night of the incident comes forward. She
has some vital new information. Moments before the attack, she
saw Dana being led down the street by three men,
three black men. After weeks of waiting for a break,
the CPD finally has something and then just as news
(14:25):
from the witness becomes known, Dana's family makes an unusual move.
They put up a sizeable reward. Might the promise of
hard cast shake loose some new leads, jog a few
memories The fightler's one answers, so does the city.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
When the mayor is getting static from his constituents, then
he calls the police chief and says, what the hell
is going on with this fightler story? How close are
you in getting this wrapped up? And then the police
chief calls his neighborhood commander says, how soon are you
getting it wrapped up? Net pressure all the way to
(15:04):
the patrolman is find somebody, make some arrests.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Armed with this new information from the dog walker, the
CPD puts every cop in the vicinity on high alert.
Even beat cops like Mary and Bob get drafted. They're
summoned to an emergency briefing and their orders find any
scrap of information they possibly can about that night. And
this is not going to be a collaboration effort across
(15:30):
the force. This is cop against cop. Whoever brings home
the biggest scraps. It's the biggest prize.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
It was very doggy dog yeah, And if you want
to be a police you get the bad guys done.
You've got to do battle. You've got to compete.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
As Mary and Bob step out of the precinct, they
know exactly where to head. First, the streets.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
There'd be thousands of people out there, you know, in
the summertime. Everybody got there, everybody, and there's always somebody
that saw all those people all day long, you know
what I mean, somebody always would see what happened.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Someone perhaps like Lee Harris.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
He could have been there, Yeah, he could have been there.
He was a contender, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Turns out finding Lee doesn't require much effort at all.
Marry and Bob bump into him almost immediately. They fill
him in about the crime, but also the reward twenty
five large for anyone who can provide information that leads
to an arrest.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
We're the ones that totally about it. And back then
there was a lot of money, and he was a
money guy. He was a you know, kind guy. Five
thousand dollars okay, you know, I mean, there was a
motive for him to want to find out about it
because in his situation, you know, there was good money.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Right, always a man to work numerous angles. Lee has
also been talking to some other cops who worked the
Gabrini beat. Old friends, in fact partners, James Ward and
John McHugh. These guys went way back. They used to
help Lee out when he got in trouble with the law.
(17:18):
They'd loan of money sometimes. They even attended Lee's wedding
back in the day. Ward and mceu are much closer
to the case than Bob and Mary. They're working directly
for the lead on the Fightler case, Detective Richard Zuley,
a tough talking cop known for making cases and making
them stick. They tell Lee some enticing insider information. They've
(17:41):
got three suspects in the case, well known criminals from
the area. The trigger man went by the street name Cheese.
But with no witnesses placing them there, there's no chance
of making any arrests. Lee gets thinking. A twenty five
thousand dollars reward has a whole lot of burn bags
and cleaning windows. He could start a new life, move
(18:02):
his son out of Cabrini. His mind starts worrying. Cabrini,
Green and the Gold Coast are just around the corner
from each other. We're talking less than a mile walking distance,
and the three suspects are also from the projects. It
will be believable that Lee knew them. He thinks, maybe
I was there the night Dana was attacked. Maybe I
(18:24):
did see something or someone. Lee decides he does know
something about the knight of the crime, and he knows
who he needs to speak to about it. He head
straight to Area six to find Ward, McHugh and their boss,
Detective Richard Zulie. Mary was unimpressed.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Those detectives are used to be called Area six. They
were all primnanas. I have to admit he hurt my
feelings a little bit because I thought that we had
a rapport and I thought, you know, because it was
a hitter case and he would have liked to been
the one that, you know, solved it, because there is
an elation to solving a case, getting the right guy,
(19:11):
you know, solving it.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
And that was the last time that Marry and Bob
ever spoke to Lee.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
See once he got involved like that, we disengaged because
why would we be involved with him.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Ward and mceue are all ears. Dana is still in
a coma, fighting for her life. They want to nail
this case before anyone else does, and now it looks
like they might have a reliable witness putting their suspects
in the frame. It's a win win. Lee is a
shoe win for the reward money and the police get
their suspects and maybe some promotions as well. Warden mceu
(19:48):
are at the ready to help Lee prepare his words
ahead of making his formal statement to Detective Zuli. I
was having a coffee and dunkin Donuts when I saw
three black guys running out.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Of the yawn.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Quickest twenty five k Lee would ever make. But a
few days later, his friends Ward and mcew ask if
he wouldn't mind coming back for another statement. A little
more detail would be really helpful. Lee thinks, sure, why not.
What starts out is just one statement soon becomes two,
then three, four, five, six, and each time Ward and
(20:24):
mcew reminding Lee of some helpful details from the night
Dana was shot. The exact alley She was shot in,
a black garage door an ivy covered wall. Before long,
Lee is not just offering peripheral scraps of information about
the night of the crime. He's the key to it all,
the state star witness. So much so he's moved out
(20:45):
of Cabrini for his own safety, all on the taxpayer's
dollar when win right. But Ward and mcew are hungry
for even more information. They need Lee to be closer
to the action. Maybe he was part of the gang
that at hacked Dana. They assure Lee not to worry.
This is all just so they can nail Cheese and
(21:06):
the other members of the gang. Detective Zuli gives Lee
his word and so and yet another statement. Lee tells
Zuli he was the fourth member of the gang. The
police are getting closer and closer to closing the case,
and those statements from Lee keep on coming. In total,
(21:28):
he gives twenty two and then on the tenth of July,
three weeks after the attack.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
After lingering in a coma for twenty one days, Dana
Fightler was taken off life support.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Systems and died. Police are giving out very little information.
They're being very tight lip. This is a high priority
case and they're being very careful.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
It's a tragedy for the Fightler family and for the CPD.
The pressure is really on. They are now the hunt
for a murderer, and thanks to Lee, they finally have
the evidence that they need to make that arrest. Bob
(22:18):
Jordan is at work one morning, waiting on his assignment
for the day when the news breaks Dana Feitler's murderer
has been found. But when he hears the name, it
comes as a big shock. Turns out it's someone he
already knows, Lee Harris.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
When they arrested Lee, I remember saying to my camera, man, hey,
you know this guy they arrested. We've interviewed him, We've
seen him around. He was always around.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
The switch around is baffling. The CPD's star witness has
become their prime suspect. But in the end, what choice
did they have? All those statements Lee was giving, all
twenty two of them. With each one he was clearly
incriminating himself. And then, to top it all, the dog
walker that saw Dana moments before the attack. She's identified Lee,
(23:14):
not Cheese or any other members of the gang in
a lineup. Solving a heater case is like winning a championship,
but instead of a parade, you get a press conference,
a really big one. After weeks of waiting, wondering, and
wild speculation, the entire press corps summoned camera's ready Mike's hot.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Every TV station was there, all the newspapers, every one.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Bob Jordan and his cameraman Mike elbow their way to
the front. Everyone is thirsty for the money shot, the
purp walk, that moment when the cuffed perpetrator, flanked by
police officers, is finally revealed to the public.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
I can only imagine what that must be like to
come through a door and face a whole wall of
probably ten or twelve TV cameras in lights, that's how
big a story. It was just the sound alone of
the flashbulbs going off and the cameras rolling, and these
(24:18):
were noisy cameras back in those days, and you know,
there was a cacophony of sound in that room and
the lights flashing and reporters of screaming, Lee, did you
do it? Did you kill her?
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Did you shoot her?
Speaker 4 (24:33):
You know?
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Where were you?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Bob manages to hold his position at the front. It's
enough to get Lee and I shot.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
I remember the look on his face. It was a
look of shock and amazement, and it was like he
had seen something unreal. I don't know if he saw
I think he did. His eyes bulged and it was
(25:05):
like he wanted to say something but couldn't or was
too afraid, or was too in all of the moment,
but he ducked his head and then was escorted away.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Crying Wolf is an iHeart and Clockwork Films podcast and
association with Chalk and Blade. I'm your host Dax Devlin Ross.
The series producer is Sarah Stolart's. The senior producer is
Laura Hyde. The serious script is written by me and
by Sarah Stolart's. Bonus episodes are written and produced by
(25:48):
me Dax Devlin Ross. Our executive producers are Christina Everett
for iHeart podcasts, Naomi Harvey and Jamie Cohen for Clockwork Films,
and Ruth Arns and Jason Phipps for Chalk and Blade.
Sound design is by Kenny Koziak and George dre bing Hicks.
(26:12):
Our theme music is by Kenny Koziak. Additional production support
from Stephen Pate.
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