December 7, 2020 • 27 mins
Huge crowds overwhelm the robbers, so they take their stash and hostages before they disappear into the night. Chicken Man is implicated, and JD Hudson is assigned to investigate the robbery.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're talking about some pretty dangerous guys. Who's there some gangsters.
There are some pretty angry people there. I mean to
lose their money and be disrobed and embarrassed like that.
And that wasn't something that was was taken too lightly
at all. It was such a night matter me. We
(00:20):
don't want nobody here to get hurt. They knew what
they were doing, the biggest hustling in New York, the
biggest hustler there. They the biggest in Chicago, and unbread
men and the food and get robbed. They made threats.
I guess our family. They were gonna kill me, my
little sister. They were gonna kill my mom. Their attitude
(00:41):
of that power world, it's somewhere. One day they were say,
they said, the man guys go to back from my
Heart radio and doghouse pictures. This is fight night. I'm
Jeff Keating. Chicken Man's world was turned upside down. The
(01:06):
party that was supposed to set him up for good
was over, and now he was living a nightmare. He
knew that even if he survived the masked gunmen who
forced him to undress and lie on the basement floor,
that the gangsters who entrusted him to host this party,
now have him on their minds. As the crowds continue
(01:29):
to swell, the scene became too much for the robbers
to handle. Here I am with James Martin, the owner
of the house where the robbery went down. So James
Gordon is now downstairs with everybody else, and the crowds
(01:49):
are starting to increase in size as they are coming
to the front door. And what happens is a large
group James comes up to the house. They obviously see
the curtains drawn, they hear the music, but because there's
so many of them now, one of the men or
women in the back of the group sees when the
door opens a gun and yells it's a robbery or
(02:13):
he's got a gun. Well, I would think that the
neighbors would have reported it. We've got a cement walk
away with grass on both sides leading up to the house.
We've got a iron fence that is about two to
three ft high with a big drop off towards the driveway,
(02:35):
which means that you can't really jump or go to
the right of the house if you're trying to escape.
And they run next door to the left here and
from what I heard. They started banging on the door
loudly and eventually get somebody inside to call the police.
(02:57):
We've got the people down there on Handy Drive with
the walkie talkies. Because of the rise of the street.
I don't think that they can see people in this
yard right here. They can't see them rushing next door
to call the police. Here's Chicken Man and j D
discussing what happened when the party goers approaching the house
(03:19):
saw the masked gunmen at the front door. People, but
why the water run next door and one around across
the stre your mother or two whatever these there was
a lot of They caught it off. They said, this
is it now. You went there already know what they
were saying on the on the on the walk and talk. Yeah,
I forgot that they're about to walk our talk is
(03:43):
and the guys and listen, we gotta get we got
we gotta get out of here. And nobody got hood
and nobody want to get killed. And the man on
the outside. I hear the man and I said, yeah,
but come on out, come on out, come on out there. Okay.
So they're making everybody stay down and they're gathering the
(04:06):
acns whatever. And if the situation wasn't bad enough, they
got even worse when the robbers decided to take hostages.
Here's Chicken Man quoting what the robbers said to the
victims lying on the basement floor to stay where you are.
We're going out of here. We're gonna take two or
(04:27):
three the women with us and we'll let them go.
We don't want to hurt nobody. Just drive a talk.
We're not gonna bother them or nothing. We're gonna protects them.
And uh, that's the way they split. One of them
was a girlfriend of mine who lived in Dials cant Baba.
(04:53):
Here I am with James trying to figure out how
the robbers made their escape with the hostages. That's where
some of the robbers took off. Some of the robbers
took off maybe the front, you know, James, this is
what I really don't know. And that's the reason why
they would have to have Barbara with them, because she'd
had the calf the keys of the back door in
(05:14):
order to get out, unless they made her already unlock
it earlier in the evening, which I'm which I'm thinking
they do that they know that they've got to get
access to that back door. The reason I'm thinking that
they took Barbara with them was beat to the unlocked
the back door, So they probably took her down the
steps and you know, she unlocked the door and they
(05:34):
just took her whipon. My thought is because they had
the getaway driver about four blocks down that they walk.
You talk to him saying, hey, this thing is over,
we gotta get out of here. They zoom up here,
maybe circle around in the cul de sac or whatever,
They jump in the car and then go from there.
I described to James the characters who were signed to
greet the party goers at the front door, specifically the
(05:58):
ruthless leader and main muscle in charge of the robbery crew,
fast Eddie Parker. Fast Eddie Parker would have been one
of the gunmen at the front door, holding a three
fifty seven with a silencer. The other gunmen would have
been McKinley Rogers holding a sawed off shotguns. These guys
grew up in Brunswick, Georgia, and ended up in New
York as hustlers working together. Fast Eddie became the enforcer
(06:21):
for Richard Wheeler, a k A. Cadillac Ritchie, one of Cadillac.
Ritchie's girlfriend's Jackie, described fast Eddie as a terrible man.
He was about thirty six years old. He wore a
short brimmed hat, and he always carried around a black bag.
When George Plimpton, who wrote Shadow Box, asked Jackie if
she ever looked in that black bag, she said, God, no, God, no,
(06:44):
oh Lord, there could have been a head in that bag.
So these are like real gangsters that I've seen the movies.
Now that doesn't even sound real. That actually happened. These
were tough men with serious violent acts in their pasts.
They had spent years doing stick up robberies in New
York and now they were in the middle of the
(07:05):
biggest heist of their lives. Here's j D with Chicken Man,
guessing what the robbers did when the party became overcrowded
and too much to handle. Then they started leave. They left.
Now you may know more about the night they left.
What what? What? We'll go ahead, they left. I'm thinking
(07:25):
that when they left the delays people who left the party.
Rober left must have been Bucky Brown and that gal
who's taking a ship off women. Okay, here I am
with James as we retraced the steps of j D's conjecture.
Bookie Brown and Lillian Dabney were downstairs making their escape
(07:47):
through the basement door. It's important to understand, James. We
know that Frank Morten probably had a bodyguard waiting in
a car on Old No and could have seen anybody
coming out this back or and going through the backyard
to that street. So we're walking into the back yard
(08:08):
at the house now and going to retrace the steps
of some of the robbers as they're doing their getaway.
So it was all of this was open anyway. There
was no offense on this back end, so they were
definitely able to go through the backyard to get to
(08:29):
the to the back street of oh No in order
to get away. I'm assuming, James, that's a very good assumption.
You've got a clear shot of Old No. How far
do you think that is? Maybe thirty forty yards to
the house and then another thirty forty yards, So I
mean we're talking about one football field maybe from the
(08:51):
back of the house to Old No. Where there would
have been another card somehow. As the robbers leaving with
this third woman, he sees that there is a getaway
car and he drops the girl and the gun and
the satchel. He tells the woman, Hey, baby, I gotta
(09:11):
get out of here. I gotta drop you now and
grab some leather, something to that effect. But what's important
to understand is that he basically has to leave her
and the satchel and the shotgun at the scene of
the robbery, and that's eventually what leads the police to
their first clue. The robbers had made their escape and
(09:45):
taken two hostages with them, Barbara Smith and another lady
from New York. Chicken Man and all the other hustlers
and gangsters were half naked and trying to figure out
what the hell just happened, and they were about to
do the police, who were going to start asking them
a bunch of questions. Here's Jad and Chicken Man explaining
(10:07):
to me why none of the victims wanted to report
the robbery. They were all hustless and everybody's waiting to
hear about him day behind. The rest would have gone crazy.
They put them all intoil, the local deals put him
into him. Everybody wanted them. They knew what they were doing.
(10:29):
They robbed it because they know we if if that
don't happen. The people don't call the police because the
robber and they come in and robber, everybody leaves and
none of us don't call the police. It was such
a night matter me because the boys thing could have
happened has already has happened. The worst thing that could
(10:53):
have happened has already happened. That's what Chicken Man told
me when I interviewed him in two thousand and four.
Are now, if you're Chicken Man, right now, your head
is spinning. You're thinking, what am I gonna do? What's
gonna happen to me? What's gonna happen to my family?
What the hell just happened? And what are Frank Moten
(11:14):
and all these hustlers thinking? Just went down? Because if
I'm Chicken Man, I'm thinking that they're thinking that I
did it. Here's Chicken Man describing the scene in the basement.
Once the robbers were gone. See what did it took
everybody pocketbook and stretched shredded it. Like you know, you
(11:41):
look through all the compartments. So everybody driving lies here
was all in the middle flow among all the other cards,
and then all this thing and I mean it is
through the long patent. Well, that's when everybody got a
chance to see who was really there, because otherwise when
you when you came in, they put their face down
(12:02):
to the floor, so you didn't know. Oh, you know,
some more people on the other side of you. You know,
I don't know who they were. They mean the girls.
Now they had about eight chair a little make sure
the bob we had. They had the girls sitting up
on the bar, all the girls, just to fill up
the school. Yeah, it's good, but everybody else was on
(12:24):
the floor. That's when I realized that some of the
people who were there where I know him from different
places New York or were having because they did the invitement.
I didn't know everybody. At some point after the robbers left,
I'm guessing chicken In and Frank Molten must have exchanged words.
(12:47):
This is a quote from The Black Godfather in George
Plimpton's book shadow Box. We couldn't hear the radios no more.
People slowly got up and looked around. Then they tried
to find their clothing. It lay there in a tall
pile like a rummed sale, and people were calling out,
I got so and so's credit cards, but I don't
(13:09):
remember much laughing. I recall the Chicken Man was wearing
a pair of long underwear, and someone came up and
said that if he was wearing long underwear, he must
have known he was going to spend the night lying
on the cellar floor. He was prepared and man that
meant he was implicated. Chicken Man was looking guilty. The
(13:31):
newspapers would report the claim that Chicken Man was wearing
long John's. It could be the second most damning evidence
that Chicken Man was involved in this caper. The first
was that he owned the house where the party took place.
Here's Chicken Man and j D reflecting on the mistake
the robbers had made. The attitude at that time where
(13:54):
they worth about the robbers. They worried about the doing.
The embarrassment they did have nothing else made them do mad.
Their money. Didn't mean about that money, boy making the
warm un addressed boy, I didn't give about the money.
They didn't give a damn, but didn't get they said
the money. The robbers fled the party house on Handy
(14:17):
Drive with over a million dollars in cash and jewelry
and took three hostages with them. Dozens and dozens of
people had been robbed and they were in shock. But
as they began putting their clothes back on and rummaging
through the pile of belongings on the floor, they realized
they had no way to leave. Their car keys were gone.
(14:40):
Here's the conversation between Chicken Men and j D describing
when the cops first arrived on the scene. So when
the police calm, I'm days. They took cockys mad from
Acne come out there and stayed out there half of
day making keys. So they all the cockies. But when
(15:03):
the police coming, they didn't know nobody. Brother nicks on
me so checking what you're doing here? This is your
house now When when I look up, I see you
to bird because the people trying to find the driver
lines and the women drawings over here. So when the
police come, so they just asking no questions. You know
(15:25):
you said the robber went that way, ain't there with
an about the net And I got to get my
ass out of there. Brother, this none of go kiss
the robber. If you find it, then come back with no.
I don't know what. So when the man run into me,
you take a man, and so he started asking me questions.
So I said, listen man the robber that happened that
people got the money. People come there and stuff and
(15:46):
stuck all of us up. So I'm I'm telling what
the New Yorkice telling. Don't ask me nothing. The robber
went that way. Kiss the robber my understanding. I think
we're go way and covering the frank. I found out
that the people were from everywhere. I was always sure
of that. But after they back to the fair cover
(16:10):
then they began to leave anybody's As the hustlers and
gangsters tried to find transportation to leave Chicken Man's house,
he was still in shock and worried sick about Barbara
(16:33):
and the other lady taking hostage. I took him up
there no side and bank here and the boba said.
The guy said, if I uh said, baby shows nice
and everybody at the time, I just kill you on
win me and then uh and give him well are
you gonna get back? And then him twenty hours or something.
The kids a cab to come back through the house.
(16:54):
They let them go, Let them go. It's unbelievable, well
that Barbara and her friend would be able to find
a cab at around three in the morning on a
dark deserted street. Some reports say they picked up a
ride from some late night partiers still celebrating Ali's victory.
In any case, Barbara and her friend made their way
(17:16):
back to the house on Handy Drive while Chicken in
watched the gangsters who were robbed gathered their clothes and leave.
Someone were just trying to get to a bus stop
or whatever they want to get back to the hotel
with all of us was checked in and somebody's hotel.
None of them lived, so and we called cabin and
(17:37):
cav came, and cavs came. The attitude at that time world,
they didn't they work about the robber. They didn't know
the robber to mistake. It's somewhere one day they were paid.
You know a guy, the biggest hustler in New York,
(17:58):
the biggest hustler now the biggest in Chicago. Have none
dressed the flo and get robbed. I mean the restaurant life.
He's been ratified. Who who who did that? And he's
gonna kill it. That's what we told me. Everything. It
was these guys going to back after the robbers left
(18:20):
and before Leach came to the house with your hotel
because I was I was bumped. I was out of
the Next morning, while Chicken Men was at a hotel
sleeping off the horrors of the night before, one of
the hustlers who got robbed was in front of his
house being interviewed by WSB and this feels long goo
(18:43):
to me, and the show said stick your hands up.
I said, man, stop jabbing and hit him. He said,
I'm not jabbing better, and he pushed me around to come.
When he pushed me around the corner, and he's told
me this was to shut down to my head, and
I said, I'm not There's not no stage, Joe. I'm
(19:03):
not jabbing. I'm for real. And when he said that,
I was really to push him in a no because
I just had It's all the fact. And by that
time two or three more filers came out. Was shutting
and as I said, he's not jabbing. When Chicken Men
finally gets up and leaves the hotel, he stops off
and gets a newspaper. He was surprised to see his
(19:26):
face on the cover. This is the same article my
father showed me at the Decatur Library almost twenty years ago.
And when I came out to the hotel and next morning,
my pictures on the front page of the paper talking
about the dribber and and they put a cash mount
on it, on the robbery. So I called his lawyer.
(19:49):
But it made news. Why newspaper all over the time.
See my picture on the paper, and if people robbed us,
and we're robbing you know. And but I knew what
that meant. When it is like I had robbed the people,
it's like I had set it up. Here is a
piece from the Atlanta Journal on October nine, which describes
(20:10):
the estimated take from the robbery. According to Lieutenant Bird,
one of the first detectives that showed up at the heist,
one of the gunmen threatened the guests with this warning
and I quote, if you raise your head, I will
blow it off. End quote from the same article, and
(20:30):
I quote one of the guests informed me that is
lost in jewelry alone was about twenty thousand dollars. There's
really no way to set the exact loss, since the
majority of the victims refused to file official complaints. However,
several said it would be a hundred thousand and two
hundred thousand dollars or possibly more. End quote. The total
(20:54):
hall from the robbery would increase over the next few weeks.
We know the partygoers did I want to talk to
the police because that would lead directly to the I R,
S and FBI asking questions. We also know that Chicken
Man was the key suspect in the robbery. And the
next day J. D. Hudson was assigned to the case
(21:15):
by the Chief of Police, Herberty Jenkins, and the chief saying,
Lutana Hudson is running this damn fame. He directly to
me and we are not shape the chief shape in
the mass THO out about that, and he never make
me sense things right right there at that I need
the chiefs etect was superlim of the okay, that was
(21:35):
the text. And Lieutenant and you were Detective Blue Tenant
and so was he supposed to have He was your boy.
But now boom, his boss is telling him that you're
in charge of the investigator and I report to him,
and you were bort to the chief and what was
the chiefs name back then, Perty Jenkins. The chiefs called
(21:56):
me and told me you want to be to get
the case because none of the huspal talked to the police.
We'll not talk to the robber intective, we'll talk to anybody,
and so I started the investigation. When the robbery happened,
he took charge. Chief of Police Herberty Jenkins, gave J. D.
(22:21):
Hudson a partner, Lieutenant Joe Amos. Amos was working international
security at the time, but they were both pulled off
their regular assignments and worked this robbery case together for
the next several weeks. I remember when day I was
coming down Mind of the King and it was shouted
after the rocks. I was visible when they were the robbery.
(22:43):
I wouldn't get out of side for five minutes because
I don't want to people think I didn't gonna count
of money and him and Amos was prob turned around
on the sen and uh. He wanted me to come
down to the station and identify somethings as I did.
H I don't want to knew it that y'all got
him do what you can would then robbed me. I
(23:06):
don't even want to see rob well, you know what
I wanted to. I want to talk to you to
see could you have us figure out who the robbers were?
Because I knew that I don't know what you was convinced,
but I was convinced that you were not involved because,
like I said, I was able to place you in
(23:26):
the fight. J D. Hudson new chicken Man was at
the fight, so he assumes he had nothing to do
with the robbery. How about people who were at the party,
did he know any of them? Here's J. D. Hudson
and Chicken Man talking about that. I was never really
told who all was there for his blacke mank I
(23:46):
didn't want I didn't want to know. I couldn't know
who was there and what they did and also find
out what happened, because if I started planning to finding
who these people were and what that that what they
did in life, they would have told me a damn BA,
(24:06):
don't read people. They were talked to. That we got
people to talk to us is because the local hustitals
told him that agree with people, uh that we talked to,
you know, and uh no, they could trust it. And
you know, you had to. You had to. You had
to decide whether you want to be a basquat detect
or racket racket detective, investigator or robbery. My nation was
(24:30):
to investigator robbery and talking to some of the hustles,
they told the guys who I was all about to
be and that they could talk to me because I
didn't care what they did. Wherever they were came from
in their owners they asked for saying about we didn't
want to better killed in the Atlanta but the chief strected,
(24:53):
but don't get the better killer and anybody else killed.
The next few days after the robbery, Chicken Man was
trying to stay alive and clear his name with the press,
the police and the gangsters that he assumed were trying
to have him killed, and he was most concerned about
(25:16):
his family's safety. Here's Gordon Williams Jr. Talking about the
threats against their lives. People thought he was responsible. Everybody
thought my dad set that party up. I mean it
came out on the news, It came out everywhere that
Chicken Man had set everybody up. You're talking about some
pretty dangerous guys who was there, some gangsters. So they
(25:39):
made threats against our family. We had threats about they
were gonna blow our house up, they were gonna kill me,
my my little sister, they were gonna kill my mom.
You know, they were gonna kill us because my dad
had taken their money. Fight night. It is a joint
(26:03):
production from My Heart Radio, Will Packer Media and Doghouse
Pictures in association with Psychopia Pictures. Produced and hosted by
Jeff Keating. Executive producers are Will Packer, James Lopez, Kenny Burns,
Dan Bush, Lars Jacobsen, and Noel Brown. Supervising producer is
Taylor Hicoyne. Story editors are Noel Brown and Dan Bush.
(26:25):
Written by Jeff Keeting and Jim Roberts. Edited by Matt Owen.
Mixing and sound designed by Jeremiah Kolonni Prescott music written
and performed by The Diamond Street Players. Additional music by
Ben Lovett. Audio archives courtesy of WSB News Film and
Video Tape Collection, Brown Media Archives, University of Georgia Libraries.
(26:45):
Special thanks to Dr Maurice Hobson and David Davis. Fight
Night is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio, check out the I heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
You're talking about some pretty dangerous guys. Who's there some gangsters.
There are some pretty angry people there. I mean to
lose their money and be disrobed and embarrassed like that.
And that wasn't something that was was taken too lightly
at all. It was such a night matter me. We
(00:20):
don't want nobody here to get hurt. They knew what
they were doing, the biggest hustling in New York, the
biggest hustler there. They the biggest in Chicago, and unbread
men and the food and get robbed. They made threats.
I guess our family. They were gonna kill me, my
little sister. They were gonna kill my mom. Their attitude
(00:41):
of that power world, it's somewhere. One day they were say,
they said, the man guys go to back from my
Heart radio and doghouse pictures. This is fight night. I'm
Jeff Keating. Chicken Man's world was turned upside down. The
(01:06):
party that was supposed to set him up for good
was over, and now he was living a nightmare. He
knew that even if he survived the masked gunmen who
forced him to undress and lie on the basement floor,
that the gangsters who entrusted him to host this party,
now have him on their minds. As the crowds continue
(01:29):
to swell, the scene became too much for the robbers
to handle. Here I am with James Martin, the owner
of the house where the robbery went down. So James
Gordon is now downstairs with everybody else, and the crowds
(01:49):
are starting to increase in size as they are coming
to the front door. And what happens is a large
group James comes up to the house. They obviously see
the curtains drawn, they hear the music, but because there's
so many of them now, one of the men or
women in the back of the group sees when the
door opens a gun and yells it's a robbery or
(02:13):
he's got a gun. Well, I would think that the
neighbors would have reported it. We've got a cement walk
away with grass on both sides leading up to the house.
We've got a iron fence that is about two to
three ft high with a big drop off towards the driveway,
(02:35):
which means that you can't really jump or go to
the right of the house if you're trying to escape.
And they run next door to the left here and
from what I heard. They started banging on the door
loudly and eventually get somebody inside to call the police.
(02:57):
We've got the people down there on Handy Drive with
the walkie talkies. Because of the rise of the street.
I don't think that they can see people in this
yard right here. They can't see them rushing next door
to call the police. Here's Chicken Man and j D
discussing what happened when the party goers approaching the house
(03:19):
saw the masked gunmen at the front door. People, but
why the water run next door and one around across
the stre your mother or two whatever these there was
a lot of They caught it off. They said, this
is it now. You went there already know what they
were saying on the on the on the walk and talk. Yeah,
I forgot that they're about to walk our talk is
(03:43):
and the guys and listen, we gotta get we got
we gotta get out of here. And nobody got hood
and nobody want to get killed. And the man on
the outside. I hear the man and I said, yeah,
but come on out, come on out, come on out there. Okay.
So they're making everybody stay down and they're gathering the
(04:06):
acns whatever. And if the situation wasn't bad enough, they
got even worse when the robbers decided to take hostages.
Here's Chicken Man quoting what the robbers said to the
victims lying on the basement floor to stay where you are.
We're going out of here. We're gonna take two or
(04:27):
three the women with us and we'll let them go.
We don't want to hurt nobody. Just drive a talk.
We're not gonna bother them or nothing. We're gonna protects them.
And uh, that's the way they split. One of them
was a girlfriend of mine who lived in Dials cant Baba.
(04:53):
Here I am with James trying to figure out how
the robbers made their escape with the hostages. That's where
some of the robbers took off. Some of the robbers
took off maybe the front, you know, James, this is
what I really don't know. And that's the reason why
they would have to have Barbara with them, because she'd
had the calf the keys of the back door in
(05:14):
order to get out, unless they made her already unlock
it earlier in the evening, which I'm which I'm thinking
they do that they know that they've got to get
access to that back door. The reason I'm thinking that
they took Barbara with them was beat to the unlocked
the back door, So they probably took her down the
steps and you know, she unlocked the door and they
(05:34):
just took her whipon. My thought is because they had
the getaway driver about four blocks down that they walk.
You talk to him saying, hey, this thing is over,
we gotta get out of here. They zoom up here,
maybe circle around in the cul de sac or whatever,
They jump in the car and then go from there.
I described to James the characters who were signed to
greet the party goers at the front door, specifically the
(05:58):
ruthless leader and main muscle in charge of the robbery crew,
fast Eddie Parker. Fast Eddie Parker would have been one
of the gunmen at the front door, holding a three
fifty seven with a silencer. The other gunmen would have
been McKinley Rogers holding a sawed off shotguns. These guys
grew up in Brunswick, Georgia, and ended up in New
York as hustlers working together. Fast Eddie became the enforcer
(06:21):
for Richard Wheeler, a k A. Cadillac Ritchie, one of Cadillac.
Ritchie's girlfriend's Jackie, described fast Eddie as a terrible man.
He was about thirty six years old. He wore a
short brimmed hat, and he always carried around a black bag.
When George Plimpton, who wrote Shadow Box, asked Jackie if
she ever looked in that black bag, she said, God, no, God, no,
(06:44):
oh Lord, there could have been a head in that bag.
So these are like real gangsters that I've seen the movies.
Now that doesn't even sound real. That actually happened. These
were tough men with serious violent acts in their pasts.
They had spent years doing stick up robberies in New
York and now they were in the middle of the
(07:05):
biggest heist of their lives. Here's j D with Chicken Man,
guessing what the robbers did when the party became overcrowded
and too much to handle. Then they started leave. They left.
Now you may know more about the night they left.
What what? What? We'll go ahead, they left. I'm thinking
(07:25):
that when they left the delays people who left the party.
Rober left must have been Bucky Brown and that gal
who's taking a ship off women. Okay, here I am
with James as we retraced the steps of j D's conjecture.
Bookie Brown and Lillian Dabney were downstairs making their escape
(07:47):
through the basement door. It's important to understand, James. We
know that Frank Morten probably had a bodyguard waiting in
a car on Old No and could have seen anybody
coming out this back or and going through the backyard
to that street. So we're walking into the back yard
(08:08):
at the house now and going to retrace the steps
of some of the robbers as they're doing their getaway.
So it was all of this was open anyway. There
was no offense on this back end, so they were
definitely able to go through the backyard to get to
(08:29):
the to the back street of oh No in order
to get away. I'm assuming, James, that's a very good assumption.
You've got a clear shot of Old No. How far
do you think that is? Maybe thirty forty yards to
the house and then another thirty forty yards, So I
mean we're talking about one football field maybe from the
(08:51):
back of the house to Old No. Where there would
have been another card somehow. As the robbers leaving with
this third woman, he sees that there is a getaway
car and he drops the girl and the gun and
the satchel. He tells the woman, Hey, baby, I gotta
(09:11):
get out of here. I gotta drop you now and
grab some leather, something to that effect. But what's important
to understand is that he basically has to leave her
and the satchel and the shotgun at the scene of
the robbery, and that's eventually what leads the police to
their first clue. The robbers had made their escape and
(09:45):
taken two hostages with them, Barbara Smith and another lady
from New York. Chicken Man and all the other hustlers
and gangsters were half naked and trying to figure out
what the hell just happened, and they were about to
do the police, who were going to start asking them
a bunch of questions. Here's Jad and Chicken Man explaining
(10:07):
to me why none of the victims wanted to report
the robbery. They were all hustless and everybody's waiting to
hear about him day behind. The rest would have gone crazy.
They put them all intoil, the local deals put him
into him. Everybody wanted them. They knew what they were doing.
(10:29):
They robbed it because they know we if if that
don't happen. The people don't call the police because the
robber and they come in and robber, everybody leaves and
none of us don't call the police. It was such
a night matter me because the boys thing could have
happened has already has happened. The worst thing that could
(10:53):
have happened has already happened. That's what Chicken Man told
me when I interviewed him in two thousand and four.
Are now, if you're Chicken Man, right now, your head
is spinning. You're thinking, what am I gonna do? What's
gonna happen to me? What's gonna happen to my family?
What the hell just happened? And what are Frank Moten
(11:14):
and all these hustlers thinking? Just went down? Because if
I'm Chicken Man, I'm thinking that they're thinking that I
did it. Here's Chicken Man describing the scene in the basement.
Once the robbers were gone. See what did it took
everybody pocketbook and stretched shredded it. Like you know, you
(11:41):
look through all the compartments. So everybody driving lies here
was all in the middle flow among all the other cards,
and then all this thing and I mean it is
through the long patent. Well, that's when everybody got a
chance to see who was really there, because otherwise when
you when you came in, they put their face down
(12:02):
to the floor, so you didn't know. Oh, you know,
some more people on the other side of you. You know,
I don't know who they were. They mean the girls.
Now they had about eight chair a little make sure
the bob we had. They had the girls sitting up
on the bar, all the girls, just to fill up
the school. Yeah, it's good, but everybody else was on
(12:24):
the floor. That's when I realized that some of the
people who were there where I know him from different
places New York or were having because they did the invitement.
I didn't know everybody. At some point after the robbers left,
I'm guessing chicken In and Frank Molten must have exchanged words.
(12:47):
This is a quote from The Black Godfather in George
Plimpton's book shadow Box. We couldn't hear the radios no more.
People slowly got up and looked around. Then they tried
to find their clothing. It lay there in a tall
pile like a rummed sale, and people were calling out,
I got so and so's credit cards, but I don't
(13:09):
remember much laughing. I recall the Chicken Man was wearing
a pair of long underwear, and someone came up and
said that if he was wearing long underwear, he must
have known he was going to spend the night lying
on the cellar floor. He was prepared and man that
meant he was implicated. Chicken Man was looking guilty. The
(13:31):
newspapers would report the claim that Chicken Man was wearing
long John's. It could be the second most damning evidence
that Chicken Man was involved in this caper. The first
was that he owned the house where the party took place.
Here's Chicken Man and j D reflecting on the mistake
the robbers had made. The attitude at that time where
(13:54):
they worth about the robbers. They worried about the doing.
The embarrassment they did have nothing else made them do mad.
Their money. Didn't mean about that money, boy making the
warm un addressed boy, I didn't give about the money.
They didn't give a damn, but didn't get they said
the money. The robbers fled the party house on Handy
(14:17):
Drive with over a million dollars in cash and jewelry
and took three hostages with them. Dozens and dozens of
people had been robbed and they were in shock. But
as they began putting their clothes back on and rummaging
through the pile of belongings on the floor, they realized
they had no way to leave. Their car keys were gone.
(14:40):
Here's the conversation between Chicken Men and j D describing
when the cops first arrived on the scene. So when
the police calm, I'm days. They took cockys mad from
Acne come out there and stayed out there half of
day making keys. So they all the cockies. But when
(15:03):
the police coming, they didn't know nobody. Brother nicks on
me so checking what you're doing here? This is your
house now When when I look up, I see you
to bird because the people trying to find the driver
lines and the women drawings over here. So when the
police come, so they just asking no questions. You know
(15:25):
you said the robber went that way, ain't there with
an about the net And I got to get my
ass out of there. Brother, this none of go kiss
the robber. If you find it, then come back with no.
I don't know what. So when the man run into me,
you take a man, and so he started asking me questions.
So I said, listen man the robber that happened that
people got the money. People come there and stuff and
(15:46):
stuck all of us up. So I'm I'm telling what
the New Yorkice telling. Don't ask me nothing. The robber
went that way. Kiss the robber my understanding. I think
we're go way and covering the frank. I found out
that the people were from everywhere. I was always sure
of that. But after they back to the fair cover
(16:10):
then they began to leave anybody's As the hustlers and
gangsters tried to find transportation to leave Chicken Man's house,
he was still in shock and worried sick about Barbara
(16:33):
and the other lady taking hostage. I took him up
there no side and bank here and the boba said.
The guy said, if I uh said, baby shows nice
and everybody at the time, I just kill you on
win me and then uh and give him well are
you gonna get back? And then him twenty hours or something.
The kids a cab to come back through the house.
(16:54):
They let them go, Let them go. It's unbelievable, well
that Barbara and her friend would be able to find
a cab at around three in the morning on a
dark deserted street. Some reports say they picked up a
ride from some late night partiers still celebrating Ali's victory.
In any case, Barbara and her friend made their way
(17:16):
back to the house on Handy Drive while Chicken in
watched the gangsters who were robbed gathered their clothes and leave.
Someone were just trying to get to a bus stop
or whatever they want to get back to the hotel
with all of us was checked in and somebody's hotel.
None of them lived, so and we called cabin and
(17:37):
cav came, and cavs came. The attitude at that time world,
they didn't they work about the robber. They didn't know
the robber to mistake. It's somewhere one day they were paid.
You know a guy, the biggest hustler in New York,
(17:58):
the biggest hustler now the biggest in Chicago. Have none
dressed the flo and get robbed. I mean the restaurant life.
He's been ratified. Who who who did that? And he's
gonna kill it. That's what we told me. Everything. It
was these guys going to back after the robbers left
(18:20):
and before Leach came to the house with your hotel
because I was I was bumped. I was out of
the Next morning, while Chicken Men was at a hotel
sleeping off the horrors of the night before, one of
the hustlers who got robbed was in front of his
house being interviewed by WSB and this feels long goo
(18:43):
to me, and the show said stick your hands up.
I said, man, stop jabbing and hit him. He said,
I'm not jabbing better, and he pushed me around to come.
When he pushed me around the corner, and he's told
me this was to shut down to my head, and
I said, I'm not There's not no stage, Joe. I'm
(19:03):
not jabbing. I'm for real. And when he said that,
I was really to push him in a no because
I just had It's all the fact. And by that
time two or three more filers came out. Was shutting
and as I said, he's not jabbing. When Chicken Men
finally gets up and leaves the hotel, he stops off
and gets a newspaper. He was surprised to see his
(19:26):
face on the cover. This is the same article my
father showed me at the Decatur Library almost twenty years ago.
And when I came out to the hotel and next morning,
my pictures on the front page of the paper talking
about the dribber and and they put a cash mount
on it, on the robbery. So I called his lawyer.
(19:49):
But it made news. Why newspaper all over the time.
See my picture on the paper, and if people robbed us,
and we're robbing you know. And but I knew what
that meant. When it is like I had robbed the people,
it's like I had set it up. Here is a
piece from the Atlanta Journal on October nine, which describes
(20:10):
the estimated take from the robbery. According to Lieutenant Bird,
one of the first detectives that showed up at the heist,
one of the gunmen threatened the guests with this warning
and I quote, if you raise your head, I will
blow it off. End quote from the same article, and
(20:30):
I quote one of the guests informed me that is
lost in jewelry alone was about twenty thousand dollars. There's
really no way to set the exact loss, since the
majority of the victims refused to file official complaints. However,
several said it would be a hundred thousand and two
hundred thousand dollars or possibly more. End quote. The total
(20:54):
hall from the robbery would increase over the next few weeks.
We know the partygoers did I want to talk to
the police because that would lead directly to the I R,
S and FBI asking questions. We also know that Chicken
Man was the key suspect in the robbery. And the
next day J. D. Hudson was assigned to the case
(21:15):
by the Chief of Police, Herberty Jenkins, and the chief saying,
Lutana Hudson is running this damn fame. He directly to
me and we are not shape the chief shape in
the mass THO out about that, and he never make
me sense things right right there at that I need
the chiefs etect was superlim of the okay, that was
(21:35):
the text. And Lieutenant and you were Detective Blue Tenant
and so was he supposed to have He was your boy.
But now boom, his boss is telling him that you're
in charge of the investigator and I report to him,
and you were bort to the chief and what was
the chiefs name back then, Perty Jenkins. The chiefs called
(21:56):
me and told me you want to be to get
the case because none of the huspal talked to the police.
We'll not talk to the robber intective, we'll talk to anybody,
and so I started the investigation. When the robbery happened,
he took charge. Chief of Police Herberty Jenkins, gave J. D.
(22:21):
Hudson a partner, Lieutenant Joe Amos. Amos was working international
security at the time, but they were both pulled off
their regular assignments and worked this robbery case together for
the next several weeks. I remember when day I was
coming down Mind of the King and it was shouted
after the rocks. I was visible when they were the robbery.
(22:43):
I wouldn't get out of side for five minutes because
I don't want to people think I didn't gonna count
of money and him and Amos was prob turned around
on the sen and uh. He wanted me to come
down to the station and identify somethings as I did.
H I don't want to knew it that y'all got
him do what you can would then robbed me. I
(23:06):
don't even want to see rob well, you know what
I wanted to. I want to talk to you to
see could you have us figure out who the robbers were?
Because I knew that I don't know what you was convinced,
but I was convinced that you were not involved because,
like I said, I was able to place you in
(23:26):
the fight. J D. Hudson new chicken Man was at
the fight, so he assumes he had nothing to do
with the robbery. How about people who were at the party,
did he know any of them? Here's J. D. Hudson
and Chicken Man talking about that. I was never really
told who all was there for his blacke mank I
(23:46):
didn't want I didn't want to know. I couldn't know
who was there and what they did and also find
out what happened, because if I started planning to finding
who these people were and what that that what they
did in life, they would have told me a damn BA,
(24:06):
don't read people. They were talked to. That we got
people to talk to us is because the local hustitals
told him that agree with people, uh that we talked to,
you know, and uh no, they could trust it. And
you know, you had to. You had to. You had
to decide whether you want to be a basquat detect
or racket racket detective, investigator or robbery. My nation was
(24:30):
to investigator robbery and talking to some of the hustles,
they told the guys who I was all about to
be and that they could talk to me because I
didn't care what they did. Wherever they were came from
in their owners they asked for saying about we didn't
want to better killed in the Atlanta but the chief strected,
(24:53):
but don't get the better killer and anybody else killed.
The next few days after the robbery, Chicken Man was
trying to stay alive and clear his name with the press,
the police and the gangsters that he assumed were trying
to have him killed, and he was most concerned about
(25:16):
his family's safety. Here's Gordon Williams Jr. Talking about the
threats against their lives. People thought he was responsible. Everybody
thought my dad set that party up. I mean it
came out on the news, It came out everywhere that
Chicken Man had set everybody up. You're talking about some
pretty dangerous guys who was there, some gangsters. So they
(25:39):
made threats against our family. We had threats about they
were gonna blow our house up, they were gonna kill me,
my my little sister, they were gonna kill my mom.
You know, they were gonna kill us because my dad
had taken their money. Fight night. It is a joint
(26:03):
production from My Heart Radio, Will Packer Media and Doghouse
Pictures in association with Psychopia Pictures. Produced and hosted by
Jeff Keating. Executive producers are Will Packer, James Lopez, Kenny Burns,
Dan Bush, Lars Jacobsen, and Noel Brown. Supervising producer is
Taylor Hicoyne. Story editors are Noel Brown and Dan Bush.
(26:25):
Written by Jeff Keeting and Jim Roberts. Edited by Matt Owen.
Mixing and sound designed by Jeremiah Kolonni Prescott music written
and performed by The Diamond Street Players. Additional music by
Ben Lovett. Audio archives courtesy of WSB News Film and
Video Tape Collection, Brown Media Archives, University of Georgia Libraries.
(26:45):
Special thanks to Dr Maurice Hobson and David Davis. Fight
Night is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio, check out the I heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Jeff Keating
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