May 4, 2023 • 27 mins
The investigation into Olivier’s killing begins, and another young radio journalist is shot. It can’t be a coincidence.
Available to all on May 4, 2023.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Last time on silenced.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Whenever you speak your MANI you're never say they would
come to see who's demonstrating against the juvlier, so that
our names could be placed on the black book like
Luis Noir.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
It went from being here's the murder that no one
has solved yet, too, this is a campaign of murder
targeting Creole language broadcasters. So it really sort of raised
the question of how much farther is this going to go?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
From nineteen seventy four to nineteen ninety one when it
passed will Always Together.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
That's Jean Rodrigue Marcellus, a former city councilman of North Maya,
talking about his best friend Fritz Dahor growing up in Haiti.
They were more like brothers. Marcellus lived with Fritz's family
when his own moved out of the city.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
They become my sole good parents. Me and Fritz. We
never fight. Fwitz was sore.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Wise, Marcellus looked up to Fritz from an early age,
and despite his short stature, Fritz was clearly a leader
with deep convictions and growing up during the Devalier regime
that got him into trouble. In the late seventies, he
was an ambitious twenty one year old who'd been selected
for a program to identify the next generation of Haitian educators.
(01:40):
At the end of the program, the students gathered to
find out whether they'd got in the job. There was
excitement and tension in the room. Then Fritz got incredible news.
He'd achieved the highest honor. He was going to be
a school principal. They told Fritz there'd be a national
event to honor him. Even the President of Haiti would
be there. But when Fritz heard that news, his demeanor
(02:03):
changed immediately, and.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Fwitz said, he said, I'm not going to be on
that on that celebration with baby dog Duvalier. A man
like me cannot be with that man.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
The room fell silent, right there in front of hundreds
of people. Fritz had stepped over an uncrossable line. He
criticized the Duvalier. He and Marcellus left in a hurry.
It wasn't even fifteen minutes later that the whispers started.
Marcella says an enforcer, a Tonton mccout, had been at
(02:38):
the event and heard Fritz's declaration against Duvalier. Now the
mccout was out for revenge.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
When that man went after him. We know exactly what
time was it time for them to cure us.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Fritz's parents acted fast. They hit Fritz away and pulled
together all the money they could for two seats on
a boat heading from Haiti to Miami, one for Fritz
and one for Marcellas.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
And he's not an easy from Haiti to hear the
ocean was warf.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
The two men joined the surge of tens of thousands
of refugees who fled the Duvalier regime in small boats.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
It was very scary. One hundred and fifty one people
was in that boat. There was an hurricane one of
the night. We thought they boat will crash little piece
by a little because it was so hard.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
But Marcellas and Fritz made it. After fourteen days at sea,
they arrived as refugees in Florida just after Christmas Day
on December twenty seventh, nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
We came here.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
On a Friday night and Saturday night while ready at
the meeting with faday A Juice. When we met with
Fadai Jia Janice was like a dream. Gontrue.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Fritz quickly became a leader in father Jean Ju's movement,
the AO and on the radio in Florida. He'd become
an outspoken critic of the Duvaliers. But soon after their
perilous journey, he and Marcellus would learn that Miami was
not as safe as they thought.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
He lost any one of us at any tank.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
From Kaleidoscope and iHeart podcasts, This is Silenced, I'm os
Valocian and.
Speaker 6 (04:33):
I'm ana Arana.
Speaker 7 (04:34):
This is episode two, Truth and Bullets.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Chris was so involved in the community. I believe Fred
You just give him a setting where he can practice.
Speaker 8 (05:20):
What he loved the most.
Speaker 6 (05:22):
Fritz became one of Father John Ju's most trusted followers
and an inspiration to other young exiles.
Speaker 9 (05:29):
Frizda was like a real organizer.
Speaker 6 (05:31):
People like Marlon Bastien.
Speaker 9 (05:33):
I liked it because when I first give you it,
I saw people on the street and then speaking about
against the dictatorship. How I said, Oh I found my nest,
Oh my lord. I was like in the right place.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
Fritz's stage job was helping community members with immigration paperwork,
but he spent his free time devoted to activism.
Speaker 9 (05:56):
But THEO, he was very active in the organizing to
topple the DV dicatorship and also to advocate for the
busic rights of due process of the Hitsian refugees were
coming on mass at the time. But he was very
outspoken and he was on all the radios. He was
a young, brush feeless, young leader.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
For all his courage. Fritz was described as a gentle
and unimposing person. He always wore a tie. He lived
in a small house, taking care of his four children
and a brother who was paralyzed, and he hosted a
show called Radio Aao.
Speaker 8 (06:38):
Fasky Black w l QY twighteen twenty am. This is
the most well listening radio and the Asian community.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
This is Tony John Deanor. He was Fritz's co host.
Father John Jews had asked both of them to start
the show because he wanted a media platform where they
could fully control the message.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Tony go back, no possaker.
Speaker 8 (07:10):
Our first poll cup started for if I remember it's
nineteen eighty eight or a nine. I was pretty young byck.
Speaker 6 (07:17):
Then Tony was in charge of fundraising. They needed money
for the airtime. They paid the station a couple of
one hundred dollars per hour.
Speaker 8 (07:25):
He liked to fight for a cause or it was
fighting for a cause.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
What does his voice sound like loud?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I don't know.
Speaker 8 (07:35):
Maybe if you're short, you like to talk loud to
get attention. It was a great It was a great moment.
It was a great time because there was a lot
of hope in the air for us here and and Haiti.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
When John Berton Aristide emerged as a candidate in the
presidential election, Tony and Fritz became vocal support on the
Miami airwaves.
Speaker 8 (08:02):
We're going to put somebody we know from us, from
our whoop to become president of the country.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
After Aristeed's landslide victory, it seemed, in that brief moment,
like via Yo's allies had won in Haiti. Refugees like
Tony and Fritz, imagine the Haiti that Aristide had promised
actually becoming real. He'd said he'd make radical change. Maybe
they could even move back home. Tony and Fritz celebrated
(08:30):
Aristide's victory at a huge street party in Miami, alongside
one of the movement's other broadcasters, Jean cor Olivier, also
known as Division Star. But Aristide's enemies hadn't gone away,
and they weren't going to lie down. A few short
weeks after the election, there was a coup attempt to
unseat the new president.
Speaker 10 (08:51):
In Haiti Today another coup attempt by a former supporter
of the dictator, baby doctor Valier, but loyal West troops
managed to storm the presidential palace and a russatine and
as followers. At least thirty seven people were killed, however,
seven were launched.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
It failed, but it stoked the ongoing battles on the
radio in little Haiti. On one side, Tony and Fritz
and other pro Aristide broadcasters speaking for change for democracy.
On the other side, pro military voices, often representing Haiti's
moneyed interests, fighting for the status quo.
Speaker 8 (09:28):
They had no radios. Look they got money, they got money.
This show what the good life for the bourgeois and
hede is Dumbai. It was don't talk about change too much.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
And then less than two weeks after Aristide's inauguration in
February nineteen ninety one, the battle on the airwaves moved
to the streets. Vieyo broadcaster jeentlurd Olivier was gunned down
outside the Chateau Club in his white suit, roses in hand.
(10:03):
Tony says he and Fritz had heard whispers about a
hit list of enemies of the military regime, what Marlene
had called the Black Book, and word was that Fritz's
name was on the list, but it wasn't clear if
it was just a rumor. Then Fritz started getting anonymous
death threats, threats like.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
I'm going to destroy you. I'm going to destroy you.
Speaker 8 (10:27):
You did talk too much, too much garbage on a
radio and we don't want to change. You got to
pay for it.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Tony remembers these threats ratcheting up called him with increasing
ferocity to the radio show. Someone even came to the
station with a gun.
Speaker 8 (10:43):
Continued to talk.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
To their family and friends, pleaded with them to be careful,
but the threats didn't face them.
Speaker 8 (10:51):
Lilydies, Oh, nothing would happen to us.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
At around eight pm on March fifteenth, Tony drove to
the Dixie Express driving School, right across the street from
the Caribbean Market in the heart of Little Haiti.
Speaker 8 (11:10):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Fritz ran his immigration business out of the driving school,
and that night he happened to be working on Tony's
brother's case.
Speaker 8 (11:19):
My little border was with him, My little border was
with him.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Tony was at the driving school to pick up Fritz
for a AO meeting. He took us to the location
right there and I opened the door, and Tony expected
Fritz to jump in his car.
Speaker 8 (11:37):
I come there to get him because it was in
the air that were want to be attack and then
we may get killed.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
But that night, Fritz told Tony to go on without him,
so Tony went to the meeting, thinking Fritz would soon
walk through the door to join him.
Speaker 8 (11:55):
It was inside of the old building. It was full
of people, close to one hundred.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Not long after the meeting started, the door banged open
and someone burst into the room. He said, first, got chat, First,
got chat.
Speaker 8 (12:09):
Theo went cold, the woman went cold. And when people
start running the street and go back to fifty to
fifty nine street. When we get to fifty Night Street,
the embulance was right there.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Tony sail Fritz was still conscious. He rushed over.
Speaker 8 (12:25):
Are you all right? He said, yeah, Oh I'm fine.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I'm fine.
Speaker 8 (12:29):
I'm fine, I'm fine. You get to the hospital live.
You get to the hospital.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Then all the doctors.
Speaker 8 (12:35):
I remember that day, all the doctors, many three or
four doctors rushed into the Jackson the doctor come out.
When I saw the doctor's face and the doctor saying
they start shaking their head like this and they say
fris is gone. They say Fritz is gone. It was
(12:59):
that Monday night when you go to the radio show.
I think that was a tough one for all of us.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
At the first radio VIAO broadcast without Fritz, there was
a void next to the microphone where Fritz usually stood.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
That the toughest day for all of us when we
get to go do that show without him.
Speaker 7 (13:20):
Yeah, I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I couldn't.
Speaker 9 (13:31):
It was at this center was I was in shock.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I was.
Speaker 9 (13:34):
It was surreal. It's so powerful, so strong, so energetic, so.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Full of life. I could not believe that he died.
Fritz have been cut down at his prime. Less than
a month after Jean Lord, Olivier, Tony and the others
from Vero were haunted by the murders.
Speaker 8 (13:52):
Somebody, someone else is going to get killed. He says,
someone else is going to get killed.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
The question was who's next.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
It really not only struck a blow against these broadcasters
and the causes they were advocating, but the community itself.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
This is Harold mass Again, the Miami Herald reporter who
was following the crimes on Craile Radio. He was struck
in particular by the symbolic location of Fritz's murder right
in the heart of little Haiti.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
It chipped away at whatever remaining doubts there were that
Jacques Clouda Olivier's killing had been political, because it was
just too much of a coincidence that they both expressed
support of Jean bertrand Aristid.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
The Haitian community knew how dangerous it could be to
speak out against the dictatorship or the military back home.
That's why Fritz and Marlene and so many others had
left Haiti in the first place. But with these killings,
the fear was growing that even in exile on American
soil on the streets of Miami, they were not safe
(15:09):
to speak freely, that their enemies were still close at hand.
Back in Haiti, other journalists were following the cases intently.
Lectual Michelle Montasse and her husband around the country's best
(15:34):
known independent radio station, Radio Haiti. It was the place
where Marlene had come to complain about not being allowed
to study under street lamps, the interview that forced her
into exile. Michelle's husband, the iconic journalist Jean Dominique had
a catchphrase, you.
Speaker 11 (15:51):
Can not kill the truth with the bullet.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Fritz had been inspired by Jean Dominique and would listen
to broadcasts of Radio Haiti from across the water. Now
the same journalist he looked up to were covering his murder.
When we interviewed Michelle, she played us the segment.
Speaker 11 (16:14):
That's you, that's what I was announcing the clips saying
that March fifteen, the Fritz Door is killed. Okay, So
in that that recording must have been on March sixteen
or seventeen.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
On that broadcast, Father John Jus raised the community's theory
about the murders. They had angered their political enemies and
that's why they were killed. What if the murderer for
the murder came from Haiti. What if the murderer himself
had crossed the ocean.
Speaker 11 (16:46):
Talking about the fact that this assassins could have left
Haiti to go to Miami. Hypothesis, Mavel, we know that
this will not this will not go unpunished because we
were veo is. If we were in the Haitian community already,
(17:07):
the people around Fitzdor have given a lot of information.
If the Miami police decides to do its work. The
assassin will be in prison very soon.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
If the Miami police decides to do its work.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
It was a big if, a big if, But why
the if?
Speaker 6 (17:28):
It all Father Johns and the rest of AO. We're
not really fully trusting what the Miami Police Department was doing.
I think back in Haiti, you see anyone in a uniform,
and they were allies of the dictatorship and enemies of
the democratic movement that they were pushing forward in Miami.
(17:48):
The white officers and superiors could not make sense of
the fews that immigrants actually harbored in their communities.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
But there were also a number of Haitian Americans.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
Wearing the uniform. Gives pause to a community that has
been so bruce, like the patient community at that time,
and maybe even now. Communities know each other, they know
where they come from, they know their last names, they
know their families. And then later we find that there
were some connections that maybe led some of the members
(18:23):
of the community to think, well, should we trust them?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Connections in other words, between the Haitian American cops in
Miami and military families back home. Yes, despite the community's distrust,
the police did put together a task Force to investigate
both killings, and they assigned all the Craile speaking offices
they could find to the case.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
Micrell sucks, you laugh, You know, Babistan is great speak,
it is poor. But the whole focus is can you relate? Yes?
One hundred and nine percent.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
That's Officer Raymond Carville. He came from a Haitian family
but grew up in the Bahamas. He was assigned to
the task force and told us they work practically twenty
four to seven to solve these cases.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
The way we get involved. Words starting to circulate that
it was it was more than just a had to
be so blunt but typical homicide. It was, you know,
a politically motivated and we got to put a stop
to it because who knows who's next. But those two
individual were high profile speakers and the Haitian community people
(19:40):
listen to them.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
The Miami PD also set up a Crayole language hotline.
Leeds started pouring in. Most of the callers believed that
the murders were politically motivated, but the theories about who
was involved varied. Was the hit order from Haiti or
from Miami? Did the hit man come from or a prince?
Or was he already in Florida.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
We were in a little Haiti, and I mean it
was there almost. Other than a few hours of sleep,
we were there a NonStop.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Day in and day out. Raymond says. They fielded calls
and chase leads. Some tips were stranger than others. A
witness claimed she saw a man in a long wig
fleeing the scene of Fritz's murder. We were told that,
though odd, it struck some as a clue. Dressing as
women had been a classic disguise of the Tonton Macoutz.
(20:33):
Another claimed the getaway car had a new Jersey license plate.
Had the killers come from out of state? According to
an officer's deposition. Cops also noticed a post it note
found on the scene on Fritz's briefcase. It had the
name of a Miami Herald reporter scribbled on It was
Fritz about to share something that someone wanted to keep secret.
(20:55):
None of these details led anywhere. Then, three weeks after
Fritz was shot, a breakthrough.
Speaker 12 (21:04):
At ten hundred hours, Detective Watkins and I went to
Metro Date headquarters.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
This is an actor reading from a copy of the
incident report from the Miami PD. We got our hands
on it after a freedom of information request. It's marked
for internal use only, not suitable for public release, and
it's all marked up with blacked out redactions, but it
reveals a major clue. The bullets recovered from the bodies
(21:30):
of Fritz dor and Jean Claud Olivier matched. Both men
were killed with the same gun. The bullets were thirty
eight millimeter projectiles, and the reports said they could have
come from a Lama ruga Smith and Wesson sport Arms
or Taurus, a revolver, a gun with a spinning barrel
(21:52):
that allowed multiple, large and deadly bullets to be fired fast,
the kind of gun you'd see in a gangster movie.
When police canvassed the neighborhood, they found this type of
bullet embedded in a tree that appeared to have been
used for target practice. This information seemed to confirm what
many in the community had been saying all along. The
(22:15):
killings were connected, but distrust of the police was becoming
a major obstacle to investigation. Leeds quickly dried up, people
just didn't want to talk.
Speaker 12 (22:26):
Redacted could offer no further information. Redacted denied any involvement
in the homicide of Fritz Door or John Claude Olivier.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
The hunt for the killer seemed to be going nowhere.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
There were those in Little Haiti who did not believe
that the police would ever truly get to the bottom
of it all.
Speaker 8 (22:44):
So about a.
Speaker 6 (22:45):
Month after Fritz's killing, Little Haiti took to the streets
and anger. A thousand people marched with candles to protest
the way the investigation was being handled. They carried signs.
One sign read police FBI stopped protecting Tantum maccoud.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
A few weeks later, a major break in the case
appeared in the form of a guy named Glossy Bruce Joseph.
Joseph was in a Miami day jail cell for a
totally unrelated crime when officers from the Task Force showed
up to interview him. This is what they learned. According
to the police.
Speaker 12 (23:23):
Report, Joseph said that he was to be paid five
thousand dollars to watch the driving school for Fritzdor when
he leaves work.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Glossi had a bunch of knowledge about the case, including
knowing where Fritz was that night, and he gave the
police a tidy motive.
Speaker 12 (23:39):
Joseph states that Fritz Dor was killed over a nineteen
kilogram cocaine deal where nine kilograms were stolen.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
A drug deal gone bad. This was territory the police
were familiar with. In fact, at the time, in Miami,
if a police officer interacted with someone little Haiti, it
often has signs to do with drugs. The picture all
started to fit, at least to the investigators. Just like
with John tord Olivier, the specter of drugs showed up.
(24:07):
After the interview, Joseph was immediately brought into the homicide division,
and that's when he had a change of heart.
Speaker 12 (24:15):
While at the homicide office, Joseph told us that he
had been lying, that he had not been truthful on
what he had said, and that he had made the
whole story up.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
The police report is a head spinner of a document. First,
Lossy Bruce confesses to knowledge of the murder, then he
says he's lying. Then detectives question him for a few
more hours and give him an inconclusive polygraph test, and
Lossy Bruce goes back to his original story. Over the
next few days, he changed his story back and forth
(24:45):
several more times before the report concluded on May twenty third,
nineteen ninety one, pretty inconclusively it says the case should
be cleared by the arrest of Lossy Bruce Joseph, but
also that it will remain under current investigation and that
several leads are being followed. So out of this is
(25:07):
where the two month investigation landed with the arrest of
Glossy Bruce Joseph, who was already in jail and who
didn't even confess to pulling a trigger, just to being
a lookout when Fritz was shot over some stolen cocaine.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
When I heard and read about Glossy Bruce, I just thought,
this is weird. It doesn't really make sense to me.
My feeling was there was pressure on the police department
to close the investigation. It was expensive, it was two months,
It was creating a lot of hassholds within the community,
(25:41):
and they wanted to save face. It also seemed to
be easier for the investigators to follow this confession rather
than keep digging. The issue of drugs was big, and
it was big in the community, so they figured they
would put it all together and then that way the
case may go away.
Speaker 13 (25:58):
I never bought this idea that these killings were about drugs.
Speaker 6 (26:05):
It makes me wonder why did it happen. Why did
they think that it was just going to go away?
Speaker 13 (26:11):
The idea that Fritz dor would be mixed up in
the drug trade just seemed preposterous to me.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
In fact, it began to emerge that it was Fritz's
enemies who were involved in the drug trade. That's next
time I'm Silenced. We should note that we tried to
(26:41):
get comment from Glossy Bruce Joseph, but we couldn't locate him.
Silenced is a Kaleidoscope content original produced by Margaret Catcher,
Jenkinney and Padini Rugunov, Research assistance from Sybylla Phipps, Jeremy
(27:01):
big Wood and Kira Sinnis, edited by Lacy Roberts, Executive
producer by Kate Osborne, reported and hosted by Anna Arana
and me Os Valoshan. Music by Oliver Rodigan aka Kydnzer,
Mix and sound design by Kyle Murdoch. Deposition actor was
(27:22):
Brian mcaulay Johnson. Thanks to mangosh Ha, Tikta Costaslinas and
Viny Shuri. Our executive producers at iHeart are Katrina Novel
and Nikki Etour. Special thanks to Karl Just, Jacqueline, Charles
Eduard Duval Carrier andin Richards and i Heeart. Thanks to
Conin Byrne and Bob Pittman. If you like what you hear,
(27:45):
please rate, review, share, and subscribe to our channel. Thank you,
Last time on silenced.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Whenever you speak your MANI you're never say they would
come to see who's demonstrating against the juvlier, so that
our names could be placed on the black book like
Luis Noir.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
It went from being here's the murder that no one
has solved yet, too, this is a campaign of murder
targeting Creole language broadcasters. So it really sort of raised
the question of how much farther is this going to go?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
From nineteen seventy four to nineteen ninety one when it
passed will Always Together.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
That's Jean Rodrigue Marcellus, a former city councilman of North Maya,
talking about his best friend Fritz Dahor growing up in Haiti.
They were more like brothers. Marcellus lived with Fritz's family
when his own moved out of the city.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
They become my sole good parents. Me and Fritz. We
never fight. Fwitz was sore.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Wise, Marcellus looked up to Fritz from an early age,
and despite his short stature, Fritz was clearly a leader
with deep convictions and growing up during the Devalier regime
that got him into trouble. In the late seventies, he
was an ambitious twenty one year old who'd been selected
for a program to identify the next generation of Haitian educators.
(01:40):
At the end of the program, the students gathered to
find out whether they'd got in the job. There was
excitement and tension in the room. Then Fritz got incredible news.
He'd achieved the highest honor. He was going to be
a school principal. They told Fritz there'd be a national
event to honor him. Even the President of Haiti would
be there. But when Fritz heard that news, his demeanor
(02:03):
changed immediately, and.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Fwitz said, he said, I'm not going to be on
that on that celebration with baby dog Duvalier. A man
like me cannot be with that man.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
The room fell silent, right there in front of hundreds
of people. Fritz had stepped over an uncrossable line. He
criticized the Duvalier. He and Marcellus left in a hurry.
It wasn't even fifteen minutes later that the whispers started.
Marcella says an enforcer, a Tonton mccout, had been at
(02:38):
the event and heard Fritz's declaration against Duvalier. Now the
mccout was out for revenge.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
When that man went after him. We know exactly what
time was it time for them to cure us.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Fritz's parents acted fast. They hit Fritz away and pulled
together all the money they could for two seats on
a boat heading from Haiti to Miami, one for Fritz
and one for Marcellas.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
And he's not an easy from Haiti to hear the
ocean was warf.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
The two men joined the surge of tens of thousands
of refugees who fled the Duvalier regime in small boats.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
It was very scary. One hundred and fifty one people
was in that boat. There was an hurricane one of
the night. We thought they boat will crash little piece
by a little because it was so hard.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
But Marcellas and Fritz made it. After fourteen days at sea,
they arrived as refugees in Florida just after Christmas Day
on December twenty seventh, nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
We came here.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
On a Friday night and Saturday night while ready at
the meeting with faday A Juice. When we met with
Fadai Jia Janice was like a dream. Gontrue.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Fritz quickly became a leader in father Jean Ju's movement,
the AO and on the radio in Florida. He'd become
an outspoken critic of the Duvaliers. But soon after their
perilous journey, he and Marcellus would learn that Miami was
not as safe as they thought.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
He lost any one of us at any tank.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
From Kaleidoscope and iHeart podcasts, This is Silenced, I'm os
Valocian and.
Speaker 6 (04:33):
I'm ana Arana.
Speaker 7 (04:34):
This is episode two, Truth and Bullets.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Chris was so involved in the community. I believe Fred
You just give him a setting where he can practice.
Speaker 8 (05:20):
What he loved the most.
Speaker 6 (05:22):
Fritz became one of Father John Ju's most trusted followers
and an inspiration to other young exiles.
Speaker 9 (05:29):
Frizda was like a real organizer.
Speaker 6 (05:31):
People like Marlon Bastien.
Speaker 9 (05:33):
I liked it because when I first give you it,
I saw people on the street and then speaking about
against the dictatorship. How I said, Oh I found my nest,
Oh my lord. I was like in the right place.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
Fritz's stage job was helping community members with immigration paperwork,
but he spent his free time devoted to activism.
Speaker 9 (05:56):
But THEO, he was very active in the organizing to
topple the DV dicatorship and also to advocate for the
busic rights of due process of the Hitsian refugees were
coming on mass at the time. But he was very
outspoken and he was on all the radios. He was
a young, brush feeless, young leader.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
For all his courage. Fritz was described as a gentle
and unimposing person. He always wore a tie. He lived
in a small house, taking care of his four children
and a brother who was paralyzed, and he hosted a
show called Radio Aao.
Speaker 8 (06:38):
Fasky Black w l QY twighteen twenty am. This is
the most well listening radio and the Asian community.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
This is Tony John Deanor. He was Fritz's co host.
Father John Jews had asked both of them to start
the show because he wanted a media platform where they
could fully control the message.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Tony go back, no possaker.
Speaker 8 (07:10):
Our first poll cup started for if I remember it's
nineteen eighty eight or a nine. I was pretty young byck.
Speaker 6 (07:17):
Then Tony was in charge of fundraising. They needed money
for the airtime. They paid the station a couple of
one hundred dollars per hour.
Speaker 8 (07:25):
He liked to fight for a cause or it was
fighting for a cause.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
What does his voice sound like loud?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I don't know.
Speaker 8 (07:35):
Maybe if you're short, you like to talk loud to
get attention. It was a great It was a great moment.
It was a great time because there was a lot
of hope in the air for us here and and Haiti.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
When John Berton Aristide emerged as a candidate in the
presidential election, Tony and Fritz became vocal support on the
Miami airwaves.
Speaker 8 (08:02):
We're going to put somebody we know from us, from
our whoop to become president of the country.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
After Aristeed's landslide victory, it seemed, in that brief moment,
like via Yo's allies had won in Haiti. Refugees like
Tony and Fritz, imagine the Haiti that Aristide had promised
actually becoming real. He'd said he'd make radical change. Maybe
they could even move back home. Tony and Fritz celebrated
(08:30):
Aristide's victory at a huge street party in Miami, alongside
one of the movement's other broadcasters, Jean cor Olivier, also
known as Division Star. But Aristide's enemies hadn't gone away,
and they weren't going to lie down. A few short
weeks after the election, there was a coup attempt to
unseat the new president.
Speaker 10 (08:51):
In Haiti Today another coup attempt by a former supporter
of the dictator, baby doctor Valier, but loyal West troops
managed to storm the presidential palace and a russatine and
as followers. At least thirty seven people were killed, however,
seven were launched.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
It failed, but it stoked the ongoing battles on the
radio in little Haiti. On one side, Tony and Fritz
and other pro Aristide broadcasters speaking for change for democracy.
On the other side, pro military voices, often representing Haiti's
moneyed interests, fighting for the status quo.
Speaker 8 (09:28):
They had no radios. Look they got money, they got money.
This show what the good life for the bourgeois and
hede is Dumbai. It was don't talk about change too much.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
And then less than two weeks after Aristide's inauguration in
February nineteen ninety one, the battle on the airwaves moved
to the streets. Vieyo broadcaster jeentlurd Olivier was gunned down
outside the Chateau Club in his white suit, roses in hand.
(10:03):
Tony says he and Fritz had heard whispers about a
hit list of enemies of the military regime, what Marlene
had called the Black Book, and word was that Fritz's
name was on the list, but it wasn't clear if
it was just a rumor. Then Fritz started getting anonymous
death threats, threats like.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
I'm going to destroy you. I'm going to destroy you.
Speaker 8 (10:27):
You did talk too much, too much garbage on a
radio and we don't want to change. You got to
pay for it.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Tony remembers these threats ratcheting up called him with increasing
ferocity to the radio show. Someone even came to the
station with a gun.
Speaker 8 (10:43):
Continued to talk.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
To their family and friends, pleaded with them to be careful,
but the threats didn't face them.
Speaker 8 (10:51):
Lilydies, Oh, nothing would happen to us.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
At around eight pm on March fifteenth, Tony drove to
the Dixie Express driving School, right across the street from
the Caribbean Market in the heart of Little Haiti.
Speaker 8 (11:10):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Fritz ran his immigration business out of the driving school,
and that night he happened to be working on Tony's
brother's case.
Speaker 8 (11:19):
My little border was with him, My little border was
with him.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Tony was at the driving school to pick up Fritz
for a AO meeting. He took us to the location
right there and I opened the door, and Tony expected
Fritz to jump in his car.
Speaker 8 (11:37):
I come there to get him because it was in
the air that were want to be attack and then
we may get killed.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
But that night, Fritz told Tony to go on without him,
so Tony went to the meeting, thinking Fritz would soon
walk through the door to join him.
Speaker 8 (11:55):
It was inside of the old building. It was full
of people, close to one hundred.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Not long after the meeting started, the door banged open
and someone burst into the room. He said, first, got chat, First,
got chat.
Speaker 8 (12:09):
Theo went cold, the woman went cold. And when people
start running the street and go back to fifty to
fifty nine street. When we get to fifty Night Street,
the embulance was right there.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Tony sail Fritz was still conscious. He rushed over.
Speaker 8 (12:25):
Are you all right? He said, yeah, Oh I'm fine.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I'm fine.
Speaker 8 (12:29):
I'm fine, I'm fine. You get to the hospital live.
You get to the hospital.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Then all the doctors.
Speaker 8 (12:35):
I remember that day, all the doctors, many three or
four doctors rushed into the Jackson the doctor come out.
When I saw the doctor's face and the doctor saying
they start shaking their head like this and they say
fris is gone. They say Fritz is gone. It was
(12:59):
that Monday night when you go to the radio show.
I think that was a tough one for all of us.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
At the first radio VIAO broadcast without Fritz, there was
a void next to the microphone where Fritz usually stood.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
That the toughest day for all of us when we
get to go do that show without him.
Speaker 7 (13:20):
Yeah, I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I couldn't.
Speaker 9 (13:31):
It was at this center was I was in shock.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I was.
Speaker 9 (13:34):
It was surreal. It's so powerful, so strong, so energetic, so.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Full of life. I could not believe that he died.
Fritz have been cut down at his prime. Less than
a month after Jean Lord, Olivier, Tony and the others
from Vero were haunted by the murders.
Speaker 8 (13:52):
Somebody, someone else is going to get killed. He says,
someone else is going to get killed.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
The question was who's next.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
It really not only struck a blow against these broadcasters
and the causes they were advocating, but the community itself.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
This is Harold mass Again, the Miami Herald reporter who
was following the crimes on Craile Radio. He was struck
in particular by the symbolic location of Fritz's murder right
in the heart of little Haiti.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
It chipped away at whatever remaining doubts there were that
Jacques Clouda Olivier's killing had been political, because it was
just too much of a coincidence that they both expressed
support of Jean bertrand Aristid.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
The Haitian community knew how dangerous it could be to
speak out against the dictatorship or the military back home.
That's why Fritz and Marlene and so many others had
left Haiti in the first place. But with these killings,
the fear was growing that even in exile on American
soil on the streets of Miami, they were not safe
(15:09):
to speak freely, that their enemies were still close at hand.
Back in Haiti, other journalists were following the cases intently.
Lectual Michelle Montasse and her husband around the country's best
(15:34):
known independent radio station, Radio Haiti. It was the place
where Marlene had come to complain about not being allowed
to study under street lamps, the interview that forced her
into exile. Michelle's husband, the iconic journalist Jean Dominique had
a catchphrase, you.
Speaker 11 (15:51):
Can not kill the truth with the bullet.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Fritz had been inspired by Jean Dominique and would listen
to broadcasts of Radio Haiti from across the water. Now
the same journalist he looked up to were covering his murder.
When we interviewed Michelle, she played us the segment.
Speaker 11 (16:14):
That's you, that's what I was announcing the clips saying
that March fifteen, the Fritz Door is killed. Okay, So
in that that recording must have been on March sixteen
or seventeen.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
On that broadcast, Father John Jus raised the community's theory
about the murders. They had angered their political enemies and
that's why they were killed. What if the murderer for
the murder came from Haiti. What if the murderer himself
had crossed the ocean.
Speaker 11 (16:46):
Talking about the fact that this assassins could have left
Haiti to go to Miami. Hypothesis, Mavel, we know that
this will not this will not go unpunished because we
were veo is. If we were in the Haitian community already,
(17:07):
the people around Fitzdor have given a lot of information.
If the Miami police decides to do its work. The
assassin will be in prison very soon.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
If the Miami police decides to do its work.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
It was a big if, a big if, But why
the if?
Speaker 6 (17:28):
It all Father Johns and the rest of AO. We're
not really fully trusting what the Miami Police Department was doing.
I think back in Haiti, you see anyone in a uniform,
and they were allies of the dictatorship and enemies of
the democratic movement that they were pushing forward in Miami.
(17:48):
The white officers and superiors could not make sense of
the fews that immigrants actually harbored in their communities.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
But there were also a number of Haitian Americans.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
Wearing the uniform. Gives pause to a community that has
been so bruce, like the patient community at that time,
and maybe even now. Communities know each other, they know
where they come from, they know their last names, they
know their families. And then later we find that there
were some connections that maybe led some of the members
(18:23):
of the community to think, well, should we trust them?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Connections in other words, between the Haitian American cops in
Miami and military families back home. Yes, despite the community's distrust,
the police did put together a task Force to investigate
both killings, and they assigned all the Craile speaking offices
they could find to the case.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
Micrell sucks, you laugh, You know, Babistan is great speak,
it is poor. But the whole focus is can you relate? Yes?
One hundred and nine percent.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
That's Officer Raymond Carville. He came from a Haitian family
but grew up in the Bahamas. He was assigned to
the task force and told us they work practically twenty
four to seven to solve these cases.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
The way we get involved. Words starting to circulate that
it was it was more than just a had to
be so blunt but typical homicide. It was, you know,
a politically motivated and we got to put a stop
to it because who knows who's next. But those two
individual were high profile speakers and the Haitian community people
(19:40):
listen to them.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
The Miami PD also set up a Crayole language hotline.
Leeds started pouring in. Most of the callers believed that
the murders were politically motivated, but the theories about who
was involved varied. Was the hit order from Haiti or
from Miami? Did the hit man come from or a prince?
Or was he already in Florida.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
We were in a little Haiti, and I mean it
was there almost. Other than a few hours of sleep,
we were there a NonStop.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Day in and day out. Raymond says. They fielded calls
and chase leads. Some tips were stranger than others. A
witness claimed she saw a man in a long wig
fleeing the scene of Fritz's murder. We were told that,
though odd, it struck some as a clue. Dressing as
women had been a classic disguise of the Tonton Macoutz.
(20:33):
Another claimed the getaway car had a new Jersey license plate.
Had the killers come from out of state? According to
an officer's deposition. Cops also noticed a post it note
found on the scene on Fritz's briefcase. It had the
name of a Miami Herald reporter scribbled on It was
Fritz about to share something that someone wanted to keep secret.
(20:55):
None of these details led anywhere. Then, three weeks after
Fritz was shot, a breakthrough.
Speaker 12 (21:04):
At ten hundred hours, Detective Watkins and I went to
Metro Date headquarters.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
This is an actor reading from a copy of the
incident report from the Miami PD. We got our hands
on it after a freedom of information request. It's marked
for internal use only, not suitable for public release, and
it's all marked up with blacked out redactions, but it
reveals a major clue. The bullets recovered from the bodies
(21:30):
of Fritz dor and Jean Claud Olivier matched. Both men
were killed with the same gun. The bullets were thirty
eight millimeter projectiles, and the reports said they could have
come from a Lama ruga Smith and Wesson sport Arms
or Taurus, a revolver, a gun with a spinning barrel
(21:52):
that allowed multiple, large and deadly bullets to be fired fast,
the kind of gun you'd see in a gangster movie.
When police canvassed the neighborhood, they found this type of
bullet embedded in a tree that appeared to have been
used for target practice. This information seemed to confirm what
many in the community had been saying all along. The
(22:15):
killings were connected, but distrust of the police was becoming
a major obstacle to investigation. Leeds quickly dried up, people
just didn't want to talk.
Speaker 12 (22:26):
Redacted could offer no further information. Redacted denied any involvement
in the homicide of Fritz Door or John Claude Olivier.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
The hunt for the killer seemed to be going nowhere.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
There were those in Little Haiti who did not believe
that the police would ever truly get to the bottom
of it all.
Speaker 8 (22:44):
So about a.
Speaker 6 (22:45):
Month after Fritz's killing, Little Haiti took to the streets
and anger. A thousand people marched with candles to protest
the way the investigation was being handled. They carried signs.
One sign read police FBI stopped protecting Tantum maccoud.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
A few weeks later, a major break in the case
appeared in the form of a guy named Glossy Bruce Joseph.
Joseph was in a Miami day jail cell for a
totally unrelated crime when officers from the Task Force showed
up to interview him. This is what they learned. According
to the police.
Speaker 12 (23:23):
Report, Joseph said that he was to be paid five
thousand dollars to watch the driving school for Fritzdor when
he leaves work.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Glossi had a bunch of knowledge about the case, including
knowing where Fritz was that night, and he gave the
police a tidy motive.
Speaker 12 (23:39):
Joseph states that Fritz Dor was killed over a nineteen
kilogram cocaine deal where nine kilograms were stolen.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
A drug deal gone bad. This was territory the police
were familiar with. In fact, at the time, in Miami,
if a police officer interacted with someone little Haiti, it
often has signs to do with drugs. The picture all
started to fit, at least to the investigators. Just like
with John tord Olivier, the specter of drugs showed up.
(24:07):
After the interview, Joseph was immediately brought into the homicide division,
and that's when he had a change of heart.
Speaker 12 (24:15):
While at the homicide office, Joseph told us that he
had been lying, that he had not been truthful on
what he had said, and that he had made the
whole story up.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
The police report is a head spinner of a document. First,
Lossy Bruce confesses to knowledge of the murder, then he
says he's lying. Then detectives question him for a few
more hours and give him an inconclusive polygraph test, and
Lossy Bruce goes back to his original story. Over the
next few days, he changed his story back and forth
(24:45):
several more times before the report concluded on May twenty third,
nineteen ninety one, pretty inconclusively it says the case should
be cleared by the arrest of Lossy Bruce Joseph, but
also that it will remain under current investigation and that
several leads are being followed. So out of this is
(25:07):
where the two month investigation landed with the arrest of
Glossy Bruce Joseph, who was already in jail and who
didn't even confess to pulling a trigger, just to being
a lookout when Fritz was shot over some stolen cocaine.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
When I heard and read about Glossy Bruce, I just thought,
this is weird. It doesn't really make sense to me.
My feeling was there was pressure on the police department
to close the investigation. It was expensive, it was two months,
It was creating a lot of hassholds within the community,
(25:41):
and they wanted to save face. It also seemed to
be easier for the investigators to follow this confession rather
than keep digging. The issue of drugs was big, and
it was big in the community, so they figured they
would put it all together and then that way the
case may go away.
Speaker 13 (25:58):
I never bought this idea that these killings were about drugs.
Speaker 6 (26:05):
It makes me wonder why did it happen. Why did
they think that it was just going to go away?
Speaker 13 (26:11):
The idea that Fritz dor would be mixed up in
the drug trade just seemed preposterous to me.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
In fact, it began to emerge that it was Fritz's
enemies who were involved in the drug trade. That's next
time I'm Silenced. We should note that we tried to
(26:41):
get comment from Glossy Bruce Joseph, but we couldn't locate him.
Silenced is a Kaleidoscope content original produced by Margaret Catcher,
Jenkinney and Padini Rugunov, Research assistance from Sybylla Phipps, Jeremy
(27:01):
big Wood and Kira Sinnis, edited by Lacy Roberts, Executive
producer by Kate Osborne, reported and hosted by Anna Arana
and me Os Valoshan. Music by Oliver Rodigan aka Kydnzer,
Mix and sound design by Kyle Murdoch. Deposition actor was
(27:22):
Brian mcaulay Johnson. Thanks to mangosh Ha, Tikta Costaslinas and
Viny Shuri. Our executive producers at iHeart are Katrina Novel
and Nikki Etour. Special thanks to Karl Just, Jacqueline, Charles
Eduard Duval Carrier andin Richards and i Heeart. Thanks to
Conin Byrne and Bob Pittman. If you like what you hear,
(27:45):
please rate, review, share, and subscribe to our channel. Thank you,
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