May 7, 2024 • 33 mins
Joe Whitehead is enraged by recent events and makes brazen threats to Moss and Rodney. Rodney has an incredible opportunity to learn everything about the case, but he won’t be able to print a word.
Written and hosted by Lindsay Byron - goodtimesbadgirls.com
Music and sound design by Guy Kelly - guykelly.com
CAST:
Newscaster - Lauren Vogelbaum
Prosecutor - Ben Bowlin
Deputy Moss - Ramsey Yount
SOURCES:
The first-hand accounts from Frankie Jones come from an interview I conducted with him in June 2022.
The newscast detailing Whitehead’s ill-fated visit to the Sheriff’s office comes from the 1977 Grand Jury report indicting Whitehead, Holley, Henderson, Boyd, Dowdy, and Barker (“The Big Six”) on Federal RICO charges.
The first-hand accounts from Rodney Smith come from an interview I conducted with him on January 26th, 2022.
The courtroom exchange in which Moss details harassment from Whitehead comes from US Prosecuting Attorney Robert Amidon’s direct examination of Deputy Sheriff B.H. Moss on December 5, 1977.
The newscast describing Whitehead’s harassment of Rodney Smith comes from the 1977 Grand Jury report.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yo, it's me your girl, Lindsey B. Just want to
give you, guys, thanks for tuning in this whole season. Boy,
these last couple of episodes of season one are some
of my favorites. It has been an honor and a
(00:25):
pleasure to write this story and I just want to
thank you so much for your time and attention. And
without further ado, let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
This is another one that I'm going to tell you.
If they came to Daddy and said, miss Challenges, we
can't Daddy had moved out here and everybody knew was
kind of an important guy, you know, the farm and
my brothers in the auction business solved the counting. You
was so far and they said, we can't get anybody
on the grand jury to go up against Joe Whitehead.
(01:15):
Nobody in the chapel touch it. She said, we're desperate. Peace.
I'm not well, I'm not scared of them. I'll pay
it up. Under one condition. He said, I want Bill
Fuller as a special prosecutor. And Daddy had that, and
he and Bill Fuller put one together and that's that All.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Star truck shot brothels run by a web of x
cons a Commonwealth attorney wasted on whiskey and power protection
exchanged for cash and flesh. A brash local reporter exposing
it all. This is Hooker Gate, criminals and libertines in
(01:56):
the South, and I am your host. Do you're Lindsay Byron, author,
historian and lifelong wayward woman, This forgotten scandal happened in
my hometown.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Join me as I use crumbling.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
News, cliffees, interviews, and dramatic reenactments to bring to life
for the first time in nearly fifty years, this wild
ride of hedonistic corruption, Episode eight threats.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
When he arrived at the Sheriff's department, Whitehead had been
drinking and there was an odor of alcohol about him.
Upon entering the Sheriff's office, Whitehead made a highly obscene
remark to the girl defendant. Whitehead was interfering with officers
while they were fingerprinting the defendants. Whitehead informed the officers
that he had something they could roll. According to witnesses,
(02:48):
Whitehead was talking filthy. Whitehead stayed right on top of Monks,
harassing him, cursing him, and looking at him with anger.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Joe didn't know the Feds were already hot when he
came roaring into that police station. He didn't know that
his control was not absolute. Power will do that to
(03:22):
a man, convince him that he is invincible, that everything
in life is free. But there ain't no such thing
as free in this world. You will pay for everything.
I told John to leave them goddamn people alone. Joe
(03:44):
Whitehead roared, busting into the police station like a battering ram.
Deputy Moss looked up from his desk. The truck stop
boys have been booked and sent home on most of
the girls too. He'd catch up with them later. The
(04:07):
axe was swinging now. Once the grand jury delved deep
into the evidence, it was done for this whole operation.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Moss, you son of.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
A bitch, You son of a bitch. Joe smacked his
hand on the desk. Moss peered evenly back. Something on
your mind, Joe, I told you stayed the hell away
(04:49):
from them damn truck stops. Would you suggest I ignore
latent criminal activity? Joe Whitehead looked at him hard smirked, you,
(05:10):
smart mouthed son of a bitch. A few desks over,
another officer rolled the fingerprints of a goal from the
fifty eight. Whitehead lurched in their direction, knocking a stack
of papers off a desk along the way. Hey, sweetie,
(05:36):
he smiled at the young woman. Ain't you the one
with an ass like a washing machine? With that, he
smashed the officer's hand down upon the woman's smearing her Prince.
The officer looked up at Joe, mouth open.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Face a gas.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Mister whitehead, he stammered, I'm rolling Prince here. Joe knocked
the blotter off the desk. I'll give you something you
can roll.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Obscenity here and the police station here, in front of
all of these people. How could an important man lose
such control? Joe Moss called out from his desk.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
That's enough, Now get him out of here, Moss whispered
to the officer. One desk over.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
The deputy approached Joe gingerly, slowly put his hand on
Joe's shoulder.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Come on now, Joe, let's get you home.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I'm the boss, you merles. You ain't shit but a
petty fell in masquerading as I wanna be loll man.
Moss looked up from his desk, dropping his pencil. That's right,
(07:38):
Joe laughed, as the door closed behind him. I know
it all, motherfucker, and you gonna wish I didn't, poor guy,
thought Moss, as the assisting officer drove away with Joe
in the front seat. He's got no clue what's coming
(08:03):
at him. But at the same time, Moss had to
admit he had no clue what was coming for himself either.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Joe, we have a problem, his secretary informed him.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
When he stumbled back into his office, she handed him
a letter.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
They're suspending your law license.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Jow.
Speaker 6 (08:49):
I just started writing about this and I got smmoned
before jury duty, which I'm sure was just done as
an annoyance to me. But uh, you know, our civic
duty says we will do jury duty. So I go
to Chatham and it's a grand jury that I'm assigned to,
and we invite the swimmer Dunn and I'm not that thing.
(09:11):
So we finish, and then we get called into the
judge's office and the judge proceeds to appoint a special
grand jury to investigate these allegations about ill doing as
they relate to law enforcement and prostitution, and he appoints
me and a couple other people on there, and then
(09:36):
he appoints to Bill Fuller to come alost attorney in
the City of danvill as the special prosecutor. I asked
the judge if I could you know step aside. You know,
I had a job, I was writing about this stuff.
He said, no, I'm not going to excuse you from
(09:56):
jury duty, but if you print anything you hearing the
grand jury, you will be put in jail. So I said, okay,
I understand.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
My quote of the week goes to Pennsylvania Counties esteemed,
former Commonwealth attorney Rodney scribbled into his notebook, then struck
it through. No, esteemed wasn't quite the word. Pennsylvania County's
flagrant former commonwealth attorney.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
No, still not in.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Pennsylvania County's fearless former commonwealth attorney.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yes, fearless, fearless.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Indeed, my quote of the week goes to Pennsylvania Counties
fearless former commonwealth attorneys Joseph Motley Whitehead, who said that
a federal grand jury investigation of which he is currently
a target is purely political.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
He read it over, nodded. It was a start. Rodney
couldn't say he was surprised.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
That the Feds had taken notice.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
No, it wasn't surprised.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
He felt, if anything, it was gratification He'd toiled alone
for far too long, watching, taking notes, pinning articles in
the dark that local preachers warned their parishioners not to believe.
And now, just like that, it was out in the open,
(11:54):
a grand jury impaneled, and he humble young newsman posted
up in a cow field appointed to serve. I can't
do it, he told the judge.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Well Son, you're gonna have to do it.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
As Rodney imagined the parade of witnesses that would soon testify.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Before this panel of honest citizens, of.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Which he was one, Rodney couldn't help but feel a thrill,
my God, to hear at last from those involved, What
delicious data? How right had his conclusions been the ones
he'd drawn from digging, from asking the right people and
(12:54):
getting the wrong answers.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Rodney was soon to.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Know a witnesses, informants, working girls, and co conspirators alike
would soon be called to testify. Rodney felt an electric
spark race through his veins.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
In the weeks and months to come, a gold.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Mine of information would be served up to him on
a silver platter, and Rodney couldn't use a damn word
of it.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
If you print anything that you hear that grand jury,
you will be put in jail.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Over the days that would come, Rodney In six other
appointed individuals, including Frankie Jones' father, Austin Jones, would pour
over police reports, insider's confessions, and even local gossip to
develop a list of exactly to whom they needed to speak.
(13:59):
This young woman, that grown lady, this man from the
wrong side of the tracks, that man.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
From the right one.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
All would be called, all would be summoned. Not a
damn one wants to talk, Austin remarked to the others
over coffee one morning early on in the month's long
data collection phase of the indictment process, and unsurprisingly, he continued,
(14:35):
these folks ain't.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Easy to find. They're like carnies. They stay moving.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Some charges were clear, interstate trafficking, racketeering, prostitution, yet the
depth to which each of these six suspects.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Were involved remained unclear.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Money from these missing links, the working girls in particular,
would elucidate the situation. We got Aubrey Henderson, Herbert Boyd,
Tommy Barker, Harold Wayne Dowdy, Wayne Holly to deal with.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
We got all of them to deal.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
With, Austin continued, but these men ain't nothing but a
bunch of GOB's classic country criminals. But the main man,
the one we got to worry about, the one that
twists this whole thing up and shuts mouths far and why,
(15:46):
Austin looked around the table at his wrapped audience taking
in the pleasure of the suspense, is none other than
Joe Motley Whitehead. Rodney leaned back in his share and nodded.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
And listen, folks, you should all be warned. Austin told them.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Joe is probably feeling a lot like a cage animal
right now, and I assure you he is every bit
as dangerous.
Speaker 7 (16:27):
Now, if I'm correct, you told us that its that
mister Whitehead made some threatening phone calls. What did mister
Whitehead say to you during those telephone conversations.
Speaker 8 (16:42):
Well, he wanted to know what I was doing at
the truck stop and forbid me to go back for
any reason.
Speaker 7 (16:50):
Did you report this to anyone else on the false.
Speaker 8 (16:54):
Well, I called mister Dawson, who was in charge of
the PD, and I told him what had happened, and
he told told me, said, well, don't worry about it.
He's been calling me all night too.
Speaker 7 (17:05):
And did you encounter harassment from mister Whitehead and any
other forbes.
Speaker 8 (17:11):
Well, their posters put out throughout, especially the east of
the count where I work on fifty eight, and some
through the north of Chatham with my picture on it.
The flyer said something along the lines of why is
this convictor felan working for a sheriff?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Sure he done the crime, but that was years ago,
a lifetime ago.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
He was only a kid.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Then Deputy Moss ripped down another flyer, this one.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Stapled to a light post.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Do you want a convicted felon in your sheriff's department?
Read the paper A photo of his face alongside a
description of his crime followed selling stolen goods. Well, that
was putting it intensely, at least. Deputy Moss continued on
(18:28):
foot through the modest downtown thoroughfare of Chatham, a town
with only one stoplight and lots of gossip. Everyone knew
everyone here, and today everyone knew that their deputy in
his youth, had made some mistakes.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
That vengeful faster. I told you, don't fuck with me.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Joe had warned Moss in a late night phone call
following the incident at the station.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
What are you.
Speaker 9 (19:14):
Saying, Joe, I'm saying your house might get blowed up.
I'm saying one of your kids might I don't know, disappear.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
A dial tone sounded in Moss's ear, the lying dead.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
What was this down job anyway, Moss wondered as he
hooked it up the street, ripping down flyers, sweat rolling
down his face.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Was the job of the law man to keep the.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Law, maintain societ, piety's adherence to the rules society had
agreed upon?
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Moss jerked a flyer from an old oak tree?
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Or was the role of the law man the maintenance
of another kind of order, one that follows another set
of rules? Moss pulled a flyer off a picket fence.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Was the law man.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Only a protector of society up front in the window dressing,
while in the back where the sausage was made, he
protects the view the powerful, the rich, the ones who
pulled the strings.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
No, Moss snatched a.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Flyer from the bulletin board in front of the Baptist church.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Do you want a convicted felon in your Sheriff's department?
A felon?
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Now? Wasn't that the pot calling the kettle seen some
times to Moss that the biggest difference between criminal and
clean boiled down to two things, money and power, and
who had which. Moss had been nineteen, married and broke
(21:15):
when he'd sold that washing machine. Yeah, he still owed
payments on it. Yeah it was a crime. Yeah, he
had been convicted, but he had thought that was behind him.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Now do you.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Want a convicted felon in your sheriff's department? Deputy Moss
knew the answer to that question. His superiors didn't want
to fire him. They respected his work, but optics were optics.
(21:58):
Moss would resign in his position in law enforcement.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
By the end of the month.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
A member of the grand jury, Rodney A. Smith, was
contacted by Joseph Motley Whitehead. During the course of the conversation,
mister Whitehead told mister Smith he had contacted mister Smith's employer,
mister Charles A. Willmack Junior in Danville. Mister Whitehead told
mister Smith that his continued service on the grand jury
might tend to jeopardize mister Smith's relationship with his employer.
Speaker 6 (22:33):
One time and again, it was late at night. I
was writing something about this, and out of the bluephone
rings I pick it up, and it's him, and he's
clearly had too much to drink, and he talks about
this and talks about that, and he calls me any
number of vile names and tells me I better quit,
(22:55):
but I know it's good for me. And it hangs up.
And at that point I thought, well, is it frightening?
Speaker 3 (23:02):
A bet?
Speaker 6 (23:02):
You bet it is. Yes, I clearly had too much
the drink. I don't want him after me. And then
you think nobody in the right mind would have done that.
No politics in my right mind would ever call you
up if you're a reporter and say you've got to
cut it.
Speaker 10 (23:17):
Shut out, Cut that shit out, Joe growled into the
phone line.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Rodney cradled the phone on his shoulder before him. In
the dark of his office, A single desk lamp glowed,
the golden light, illuminating the typewriter across which his fingers danced.
Who is this, Rodney asked.
Speaker 11 (23:57):
I said, cut that shot out, all them little articles.
I know you writing all that digging. I wouldn't do it, Joe,
cut that shit out, I said, are you going sorely?
(24:18):
And I mean sorely? Regret fucking with me?
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Rodney looked to the picture window, black and empty, the
night of Gretna avoid. Across the street, Bessie the Cows
slept peacefully with her calf at her side. He couldn't
see the cows now, though, not in this inky rural darkness.
(24:55):
He couldn't see anything but the stars above. But those cows,
his bovine buddies across the street, well if they wanted to,
if they lifted their sleepy old heads, they could certainly
(25:18):
see Rodney. His desk glamp cast a glow upon him,
like a beacon in the night, or a target. Promise me,
he'll be careful, Rodney's wife had pleaded the deeper. He dug,
(25:43):
I love you, he promised, because he couldn't.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
He could not honestly promise to be careful.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
His heart pounded as he looked dumbfounded at the receiver
in his hand, howling a dial tone into the quiet
of his office. He placed it uneasily back into its cradle.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
The man.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Joe Whitehead was off his rocker, far gone, making bad decisions, dangerous.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
And Rodney was scared, only getting scareder.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Yet with each turn of the screw his bravery increased.
We mistake ourselves for cowards. Yet the noble among us
know that cowardice is the lux of the safe. A
(27:02):
man trapped in a fire knows he will run through flames.
We will do hard things when hard things do us first.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
The higher the fire, the higher we leap.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Bravery is our survival instinct, understood as poetry. Rodney was afraid, sure,
but he wasn't a coward. My quote of the week
(27:42):
goes to Pennsylvania County's fearless former Commonwealth Attorney Joseph Motley Whitehead,
who said that a federal grand jury investigation of which
he is currently a target, is purely political. Rodney typed,
there is nothing political about looking into a situation that
(28:06):
has existed in Pittsylvania County for a number of years.
He lifted his fingers from the keyboard, furrowed his brow
in contemplation. And prostitution has flourished here, as we all know,
(28:27):
for quite some time. Rodney leaned back, thinking through his
next lines, I think that Whitehead is trying to use
(28:47):
his political connections to stop the federal.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Grand jury investigation.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
If Whitehead can succeed in this, it will be the
biggest injustice I have ever witnessed.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Suddenly something caught his.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Attention in the window. His head shot up from the page.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Was that.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Movement outside car driving by a man walking by at
this time of night? He blinked, squinted out the window
(29:39):
into the velvet night, black as pitch, still as death.
It was nothing, he was sure of. It, Probably just
Bessie the cow kidding comfortable, Rodney returned to his article,
(30:01):
poised his fingers over the keys. For a moment, he wondered,
is this worth it? The paranoia, the squinting into the night?
But was it paranoia when the man was making real threats,
(30:26):
his wife, her worry, his kids missing him at dinner?
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Again?
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Rodney sighed, rubbed his eyes, looked to the clock on
the wall.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Three am. Was it worth it?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
I am not stating that Joe Motley white had as
guilty of anything Rodney type. Nonetheless, I sincerely believe the
Federal Grand Jury should be allowed to complete its investigation
to find out if Whitehead is in fact the poor, innocent,
little lamb he claims to be.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
In the field.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Across the street, the cows slept on, unmoving, undisturbed.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
My name is Lindsey Byron, but most people know me
as lux ATL. Learn more about my work tits out,
globe trotting and mansions worldwide at Good Times, Badgirls dot com.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Follow me on the ground.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
And TikTok at lux Underscore Atl, on YouTube at lux Atl.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
And on Substyle, where I blog weekly.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
At Tumultuous True Stories by Lindsaybyron. If you'd like to
hear more about my own experience, slang and companionship across
the South, read my memoir Too Pretty to Be Good
by Lindsay Byron. Find it on Amazon, Barnesandnoble dot com,
and anywhere books are sold online. Hey, if you'd like
(32:22):
to continue to listen to me tell stories, check out
my first.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Podcast, strip Cast True Stories from a Stripper with the PhD.
Listen on Spotify and iTunes.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Follow this podcast on the Gram at hooker Gate.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Underscore podcast theme music.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
And sound design by my long term partner in artistic crime,
Guy Kelly, you the illist GK. Check out his work
at Guy Kelly dot com.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
While this podcast is.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Based upon real events, certain elements have been fictionalized for
matic effect. I cannot know for certain what exactly was
said behind closed doors, so I combine my research and
imagination to dramatize scenes described most often under oath in court,
and occasionally secondhand via journalistic or personal accounts. Find citations
(33:20):
in this show notes.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
The pitch for.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
This podcast won the twenty twenty one Next Great Podcast
competition hosted by Tongle and iHeartRadio, which is why I'm
here now producing this joint my gratitude for the opportunity.
Hooker Gate is a production of iHeartMedia Block Up Blah,
(33:47):
Sorry Bro, still got this fucking call.
Yo, it's me your girl, Lindsey B. Just want to
give you, guys, thanks for tuning in this whole season. Boy,
these last couple of episodes of season one are some
of my favorites. It has been an honor and a
(00:25):
pleasure to write this story and I just want to
thank you so much for your time and attention. And
without further ado, let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
This is another one that I'm going to tell you.
If they came to Daddy and said, miss Challenges, we
can't Daddy had moved out here and everybody knew was
kind of an important guy, you know, the farm and
my brothers in the auction business solved the counting. You
was so far and they said, we can't get anybody
on the grand jury to go up against Joe Whitehead.
(01:15):
Nobody in the chapel touch it. She said, we're desperate. Peace.
I'm not well, I'm not scared of them. I'll pay
it up. Under one condition. He said, I want Bill
Fuller as a special prosecutor. And Daddy had that, and
he and Bill Fuller put one together and that's that All.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Star truck shot brothels run by a web of x
cons a Commonwealth attorney wasted on whiskey and power protection
exchanged for cash and flesh. A brash local reporter exposing
it all. This is Hooker Gate, criminals and libertines in
(01:56):
the South, and I am your host. Do you're Lindsay Byron, author,
historian and lifelong wayward woman, This forgotten scandal happened in
my hometown.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Join me as I use crumbling.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
News, cliffees, interviews, and dramatic reenactments to bring to life
for the first time in nearly fifty years, this wild
ride of hedonistic corruption, Episode eight threats.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
When he arrived at the Sheriff's department, Whitehead had been
drinking and there was an odor of alcohol about him.
Upon entering the Sheriff's office, Whitehead made a highly obscene
remark to the girl defendant. Whitehead was interfering with officers
while they were fingerprinting the defendants. Whitehead informed the officers
that he had something they could roll. According to witnesses,
(02:48):
Whitehead was talking filthy. Whitehead stayed right on top of Monks,
harassing him, cursing him, and looking at him with anger.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Joe didn't know the Feds were already hot when he
came roaring into that police station. He didn't know that
his control was not absolute. Power will do that to
(03:22):
a man, convince him that he is invincible, that everything
in life is free. But there ain't no such thing
as free in this world. You will pay for everything.
I told John to leave them goddamn people alone. Joe
(03:44):
Whitehead roared, busting into the police station like a battering ram.
Deputy Moss looked up from his desk. The truck stop
boys have been booked and sent home on most of
the girls too. He'd catch up with them later. The
(04:07):
axe was swinging now. Once the grand jury delved deep
into the evidence, it was done for this whole operation.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Moss, you son of.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
A bitch, You son of a bitch. Joe smacked his
hand on the desk. Moss peered evenly back. Something on
your mind, Joe, I told you stayed the hell away
(04:49):
from them damn truck stops. Would you suggest I ignore
latent criminal activity? Joe Whitehead looked at him hard smirked, you,
(05:10):
smart mouthed son of a bitch. A few desks over,
another officer rolled the fingerprints of a goal from the
fifty eight. Whitehead lurched in their direction, knocking a stack
of papers off a desk along the way. Hey, sweetie,
(05:36):
he smiled at the young woman. Ain't you the one
with an ass like a washing machine? With that, he
smashed the officer's hand down upon the woman's smearing her Prince.
The officer looked up at Joe, mouth open.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Face a gas.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Mister whitehead, he stammered, I'm rolling Prince here. Joe knocked
the blotter off the desk. I'll give you something you
can roll.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Obscenity here and the police station here, in front of
all of these people. How could an important man lose
such control? Joe Moss called out from his desk.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
That's enough, Now get him out of here, Moss whispered
to the officer. One desk over.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
The deputy approached Joe gingerly, slowly put his hand on
Joe's shoulder.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Come on now, Joe, let's get you home.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I'm the boss, you merles. You ain't shit but a
petty fell in masquerading as I wanna be loll man.
Moss looked up from his desk, dropping his pencil. That's right,
(07:38):
Joe laughed, as the door closed behind him. I know
it all, motherfucker, and you gonna wish I didn't, poor guy,
thought Moss, as the assisting officer drove away with Joe
in the front seat. He's got no clue what's coming
(08:03):
at him. But at the same time, Moss had to
admit he had no clue what was coming for himself either.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Joe, we have a problem, his secretary informed him.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
When he stumbled back into his office, she handed him
a letter.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
They're suspending your law license.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Jow.
Speaker 6 (08:49):
I just started writing about this and I got smmoned
before jury duty, which I'm sure was just done as
an annoyance to me. But uh, you know, our civic
duty says we will do jury duty. So I go
to Chatham and it's a grand jury that I'm assigned to,
and we invite the swimmer Dunn and I'm not that thing.
(09:11):
So we finish, and then we get called into the
judge's office and the judge proceeds to appoint a special
grand jury to investigate these allegations about ill doing as
they relate to law enforcement and prostitution, and he appoints
me and a couple other people on there, and then
(09:36):
he appoints to Bill Fuller to come alost attorney in
the City of danvill as the special prosecutor. I asked
the judge if I could you know step aside. You know,
I had a job, I was writing about this stuff.
He said, no, I'm not going to excuse you from
(09:56):
jury duty, but if you print anything you hearing the
grand jury, you will be put in jail. So I said, okay,
I understand.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
My quote of the week goes to Pennsylvania Counties esteemed,
former Commonwealth attorney Rodney scribbled into his notebook, then struck
it through. No, esteemed wasn't quite the word. Pennsylvania County's
flagrant former commonwealth attorney.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
No, still not in.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Pennsylvania County's fearless former commonwealth attorney.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yes, fearless, fearless.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Indeed, my quote of the week goes to Pennsylvania Counties
fearless former commonwealth attorneys Joseph Motley Whitehead, who said that
a federal grand jury investigation of which he is currently
a target is purely political.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
He read it over, nodded. It was a start. Rodney
couldn't say he was surprised.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
That the Feds had taken notice.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
No, it wasn't surprised.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
He felt, if anything, it was gratification He'd toiled alone
for far too long, watching, taking notes, pinning articles in
the dark that local preachers warned their parishioners not to believe.
And now, just like that, it was out in the open,
(11:54):
a grand jury impaneled, and he humble young newsman posted
up in a cow field appointed to serve. I can't
do it, he told the judge.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Well Son, you're gonna have to do it.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
As Rodney imagined the parade of witnesses that would soon testify.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Before this panel of honest citizens, of.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Which he was one, Rodney couldn't help but feel a thrill,
my God, to hear at last from those involved, What
delicious data? How right had his conclusions been the ones
he'd drawn from digging, from asking the right people and
(12:54):
getting the wrong answers.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Rodney was soon to.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Know a witnesses, informants, working girls, and co conspirators alike
would soon be called to testify. Rodney felt an electric
spark race through his veins.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
In the weeks and months to come, a gold.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Mine of information would be served up to him on
a silver platter, and Rodney couldn't use a damn word
of it.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
If you print anything that you hear that grand jury,
you will be put in jail.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Over the days that would come, Rodney In six other
appointed individuals, including Frankie Jones' father, Austin Jones, would pour
over police reports, insider's confessions, and even local gossip to
develop a list of exactly to whom they needed to speak.
(13:59):
This young woman, that grown lady, this man from the
wrong side of the tracks, that man.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
From the right one.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
All would be called, all would be summoned. Not a
damn one wants to talk, Austin remarked to the others
over coffee one morning early on in the month's long
data collection phase of the indictment process, and unsurprisingly, he continued,
(14:35):
these folks ain't.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Easy to find. They're like carnies. They stay moving.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Some charges were clear, interstate trafficking, racketeering, prostitution, yet the
depth to which each of these six suspects.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Were involved remained unclear.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Money from these missing links, the working girls in particular,
would elucidate the situation. We got Aubrey Henderson, Herbert Boyd,
Tommy Barker, Harold Wayne Dowdy, Wayne Holly to deal with.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
We got all of them to deal.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
With, Austin continued, but these men ain't nothing but a
bunch of GOB's classic country criminals. But the main man,
the one we got to worry about, the one that
twists this whole thing up and shuts mouths far and why,
(15:46):
Austin looked around the table at his wrapped audience taking
in the pleasure of the suspense, is none other than
Joe Motley Whitehead. Rodney leaned back in his share and nodded.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
And listen, folks, you should all be warned. Austin told them.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Joe is probably feeling a lot like a cage animal
right now, and I assure you he is every bit
as dangerous.
Speaker 7 (16:27):
Now, if I'm correct, you told us that its that
mister Whitehead made some threatening phone calls. What did mister
Whitehead say to you during those telephone conversations.
Speaker 8 (16:42):
Well, he wanted to know what I was doing at
the truck stop and forbid me to go back for
any reason.
Speaker 7 (16:50):
Did you report this to anyone else on the false.
Speaker 8 (16:54):
Well, I called mister Dawson, who was in charge of
the PD, and I told him what had happened, and
he told told me, said, well, don't worry about it.
He's been calling me all night too.
Speaker 7 (17:05):
And did you encounter harassment from mister Whitehead and any
other forbes.
Speaker 8 (17:11):
Well, their posters put out throughout, especially the east of
the count where I work on fifty eight, and some
through the north of Chatham with my picture on it.
The flyer said something along the lines of why is
this convictor felan working for a sheriff?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Sure he done the crime, but that was years ago,
a lifetime ago.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
He was only a kid.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Then Deputy Moss ripped down another flyer, this one.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Stapled to a light post.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Do you want a convicted felon in your sheriff's department?
Read the paper A photo of his face alongside a
description of his crime followed selling stolen goods. Well, that
was putting it intensely, at least. Deputy Moss continued on
(18:28):
foot through the modest downtown thoroughfare of Chatham, a town
with only one stoplight and lots of gossip. Everyone knew
everyone here, and today everyone knew that their deputy in
his youth, had made some mistakes.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
That vengeful faster. I told you, don't fuck with me.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Joe had warned Moss in a late night phone call
following the incident at the station.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
What are you.
Speaker 9 (19:14):
Saying, Joe, I'm saying your house might get blowed up.
I'm saying one of your kids might I don't know, disappear.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
A dial tone sounded in Moss's ear, the lying dead.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
What was this down job anyway, Moss wondered as he
hooked it up the street, ripping down flyers, sweat rolling
down his face.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Was the job of the law man to keep the.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Law, maintain societ, piety's adherence to the rules society had
agreed upon?
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Moss jerked a flyer from an old oak tree?
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Or was the role of the law man the maintenance
of another kind of order, one that follows another set
of rules? Moss pulled a flyer off a picket fence.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Was the law man.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Only a protector of society up front in the window dressing,
while in the back where the sausage was made, he
protects the view the powerful, the rich, the ones who
pulled the strings.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
No, Moss snatched a.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Flyer from the bulletin board in front of the Baptist church.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Do you want a convicted felon in your Sheriff's department?
A felon?
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Now? Wasn't that the pot calling the kettle seen some
times to Moss that the biggest difference between criminal and
clean boiled down to two things, money and power, and
who had which. Moss had been nineteen, married and broke
(21:15):
when he'd sold that washing machine. Yeah, he still owed
payments on it. Yeah it was a crime. Yeah, he
had been convicted, but he had thought that was behind him.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Now do you.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Want a convicted felon in your sheriff's department? Deputy Moss
knew the answer to that question. His superiors didn't want
to fire him. They respected his work, but optics were optics.
(21:58):
Moss would resign in his position in law enforcement.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
By the end of the month.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
A member of the grand jury, Rodney A. Smith, was
contacted by Joseph Motley Whitehead. During the course of the conversation,
mister Whitehead told mister Smith he had contacted mister Smith's employer,
mister Charles A. Willmack Junior in Danville. Mister Whitehead told
mister Smith that his continued service on the grand jury
might tend to jeopardize mister Smith's relationship with his employer.
Speaker 6 (22:33):
One time and again, it was late at night. I
was writing something about this, and out of the bluephone
rings I pick it up, and it's him, and he's
clearly had too much to drink, and he talks about
this and talks about that, and he calls me any
number of vile names and tells me I better quit,
(22:55):
but I know it's good for me. And it hangs up.
And at that point I thought, well, is it frightening?
Speaker 3 (23:02):
A bet?
Speaker 6 (23:02):
You bet it is. Yes, I clearly had too much
the drink. I don't want him after me. And then
you think nobody in the right mind would have done that.
No politics in my right mind would ever call you
up if you're a reporter and say you've got to
cut it.
Speaker 10 (23:17):
Shut out, Cut that shit out, Joe growled into the
phone line.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Rodney cradled the phone on his shoulder before him. In
the dark of his office, A single desk lamp glowed,
the golden light, illuminating the typewriter across which his fingers danced.
Who is this, Rodney asked.
Speaker 11 (23:57):
I said, cut that shot out, all them little articles.
I know you writing all that digging. I wouldn't do it, Joe,
cut that shit out, I said, are you going sorely?
(24:18):
And I mean sorely? Regret fucking with me?
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Rodney looked to the picture window, black and empty, the
night of Gretna avoid. Across the street, Bessie the Cows
slept peacefully with her calf at her side. He couldn't
see the cows now, though, not in this inky rural darkness.
(24:55):
He couldn't see anything but the stars above. But those cows,
his bovine buddies across the street, well if they wanted to,
if they lifted their sleepy old heads, they could certainly
(25:18):
see Rodney. His desk glamp cast a glow upon him,
like a beacon in the night, or a target. Promise me,
he'll be careful, Rodney's wife had pleaded the deeper. He dug,
(25:43):
I love you, he promised, because he couldn't.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
He could not honestly promise to be careful.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
His heart pounded as he looked dumbfounded at the receiver
in his hand, howling a dial tone into the quiet
of his office. He placed it uneasily back into its cradle.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
The man.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Joe Whitehead was off his rocker, far gone, making bad decisions, dangerous.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
And Rodney was scared, only getting scareder.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Yet with each turn of the screw his bravery increased.
We mistake ourselves for cowards. Yet the noble among us
know that cowardice is the lux of the safe. A
(27:02):
man trapped in a fire knows he will run through flames.
We will do hard things when hard things do us first.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
The higher the fire, the higher we leap.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Bravery is our survival instinct, understood as poetry. Rodney was afraid, sure,
but he wasn't a coward. My quote of the week
(27:42):
goes to Pennsylvania County's fearless former Commonwealth Attorney Joseph Motley Whitehead,
who said that a federal grand jury investigation of which
he is currently a target, is purely political. Rodney typed,
there is nothing political about looking into a situation that
(28:06):
has existed in Pittsylvania County for a number of years.
He lifted his fingers from the keyboard, furrowed his brow
in contemplation. And prostitution has flourished here, as we all know,
(28:27):
for quite some time. Rodney leaned back, thinking through his
next lines, I think that Whitehead is trying to use
(28:47):
his political connections to stop the federal.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Grand jury investigation.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
If Whitehead can succeed in this, it will be the
biggest injustice I have ever witnessed.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Suddenly something caught his.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Attention in the window. His head shot up from the page.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Was that.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Movement outside car driving by a man walking by at
this time of night? He blinked, squinted out the window
(29:39):
into the velvet night, black as pitch, still as death.
It was nothing, he was sure of. It, Probably just
Bessie the cow kidding comfortable, Rodney returned to his article,
(30:01):
poised his fingers over the keys. For a moment, he wondered,
is this worth it? The paranoia, the squinting into the night?
But was it paranoia when the man was making real threats,
(30:26):
his wife, her worry, his kids missing him at dinner?
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Again?
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Rodney sighed, rubbed his eyes, looked to the clock on
the wall.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Three am. Was it worth it?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
I am not stating that Joe Motley white had as
guilty of anything Rodney type. Nonetheless, I sincerely believe the
Federal Grand Jury should be allowed to complete its investigation
to find out if Whitehead is in fact the poor, innocent,
little lamb he claims to be.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
In the field.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Across the street, the cows slept on, unmoving, undisturbed.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
My name is Lindsey Byron, but most people know me
as lux ATL. Learn more about my work tits out,
globe trotting and mansions worldwide at Good Times, Badgirls dot com.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Follow me on the ground.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
And TikTok at lux Underscore Atl, on YouTube at lux Atl.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
And on Substyle, where I blog weekly.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
At Tumultuous True Stories by Lindsaybyron. If you'd like to
hear more about my own experience, slang and companionship across
the South, read my memoir Too Pretty to Be Good
by Lindsay Byron. Find it on Amazon, Barnesandnoble dot com,
and anywhere books are sold online. Hey, if you'd like
(32:22):
to continue to listen to me tell stories, check out
my first.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Podcast, strip Cast True Stories from a Stripper with the PhD.
Listen on Spotify and iTunes.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Follow this podcast on the Gram at hooker Gate.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Underscore podcast theme music.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
And sound design by my long term partner in artistic crime,
Guy Kelly, you the illist GK. Check out his work
at Guy Kelly dot com.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
While this podcast is.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Based upon real events, certain elements have been fictionalized for
matic effect. I cannot know for certain what exactly was
said behind closed doors, so I combine my research and
imagination to dramatize scenes described most often under oath in court,
and occasionally secondhand via journalistic or personal accounts. Find citations
(33:20):
in this show notes.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
The pitch for.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
This podcast won the twenty twenty one Next Great Podcast
competition hosted by Tongle and iHeartRadio, which is why I'm
here now producing this joint my gratitude for the opportunity.
Hooker Gate is a production of iHeartMedia Block Up Blah,
(33:47):
Sorry Bro, still got this fucking call.
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