S2 [2] He's Not Done Yet | The Ballad of Billy Balls

After Billy dies, his body disappears and strange things start to happen. Rebecca insists the whole thing is a cover up and we set out to find the truth.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
I don't want to buy a bottle of water. Oh,
my producer, Austin and I are killing time in between
interviews in the East Village. Right there is that. Oh
my god, Austin, look where we are that right there? Wait? Stop? Oh?
Should we just walked past. We're in the middle of
the thing. We're safe. That is the news stand where
Red worked. Okay, so we're st Marks and third. That's

(00:24):
the hotel. Oh, that's Marks. That's thirteen third Avenue. That's
the storefront. Thirteen third Avenue is the storefront where Rebecca
and Billy lived. Back then, this place was fly paper
for weirdos. Now it's a salon called hair Mates. This avenue.

(00:44):
How it is pretty big in there, huh, room enough
for four rows of chairs to go all the way back,
with a reception in the front, and it looks like
a little kitchen or office in the back. It's pretty big.
Standing here. I try to imagine what it looked like
that day, the day that changed everything, The day Rebecca

(01:06):
came home to find the storefront blocked off with police tape,
the window blown out, cops everywhere, the day that Billy
was shot from Crime Town. I'm io till it right,

(01:30):
and this is the Ballad of Billy Balls. I might
be one of those people that comes alive in Danger
and Romance. A lot of people are afraid of crawl.

(01:52):
I'm in New York City, afraid that there's no such
thing as a safe neighborhood anymore, afraid of right, and
off the elevator comes Billy Balls. And it's called love
It First Sight. And when I come up to the

(02:17):
Starfront on Avenue when we lived in, there's orange tape
all over and they says, William Heinzman, he shot five
times and he's in such and such hospital. Chapter two.

(02:38):
He's not done yet. My mind was just fucked and disoriented.
And they told me the wrong hospital. And I went
there and it says this is the wrong hospital and
he's in such and such and I ran there and

(03:00):
they told me he's empty. The blood bag on his
tight Rebecca finally found Billy at Cabrini Medical Center. He
was in rough shape, but he was alive. I saw
her in the first time. He was away in the

(03:20):
distance and almost like a shrine, like it's so far back.
It's dark back there, and there was a nurse changing
his sheet like you change the diaper of a baby,
and he was like being turned over, and his head
kind of came my way, but his soul was floating

(03:45):
above his body. It looked like he was made of
criscal His soul is not in his body, it was
floating above him. His ankle was handcuffed to the rail
of the bed, and next to his shoulder was an

(04:06):
armed pig. Rebecca says, Billy was being guarded by the cops,
even though it didn't seem like he was going anywhere.
And first of all, he had a trickier respirator down
his his windpipe. And I took a fixture of his
belly where there are big meat hooks holding his belly together,

(04:32):
and it was slashed all the way across three times
and big meat hooks holding it together because it wasn't
even sewn together yet. And he had stitches his cut
where his collar bone once was. They removed his collar bone,

(04:55):
which was the favorite part of my favorite part of
his body was just go to you cute little collar
bones and chest. And when I saw his stitches and
his collar bone, my niece buckle, and for the first
and only time in my life, I started to faint.

(05:20):
And he said, he said to the guard give her
and he was a stupid pig and he didn't do ship.
And the nurse is bringing him a plate of a
chicken leg and this big solid food, which makes no

(05:44):
sense whatsoever. How are you going to feed somebody holding
their belly together with meat hooks this big solid food.
And that's the day when I'm walking down the hall
and he shouts to me, baby, do what you want.

(06:12):
That meant, do what the fuck I want, Like he's
cutting me loose because he is in some deep ship
and he knows it. You know what I'm saying. And
I was freaking the funk out, And yes, I was
crying like a banshee NonStop. And I didn't know what

(06:39):
the funk to do, but I did know what the
funk to do. I knew exactly what to do. My
instincts just told me what the fund to do. That's
after the break with Billy in the hospital, Rebecca went

(07:04):
back to Avenue and tried to piece together what had happened.
I see Ming Super. One of the only witnesses was
the building's maintenance guy, a dude named Ming Ming saw

(07:25):
cowboy hat, a person walk with Billy the way Rebecca
remembers it. Ming said, Billy and this man in a
cowboy hat walked around the neighborhood and they came back.
They went downstairs, then went down in the basement through
a hatch in the sidewalk. Bime, Billy came back up
alone and went into the house, and then that dude

(07:49):
with the cowboy hat broke down the door, shooting. So
then the question became, who's the guy in the cowboy
hat that was an undercovering narcotics detective. I don't know
the guy to tell what happens. He was an undercovering
narcotics detective. Billy told me that, and he came to

(08:13):
see Billy in the hospital when he was alive, and
he said the hospital, Billy said to me that the
dude that shot him came to the hospital and said
to him, if it was up to me, you wouldn't
be in here. Rebecca realized that she needed to talk

(08:38):
to a lawyer, and I called Mark Pines. Mark Pines
is a videographer that invented music video. He knew Billy
and respected him, and I called him and I told
him what the fuck and he told me two of
the heaviest lawyers in New York City right off the bat,

(09:01):
because it was clearly a big civil suit, you know,
and some horrible crime against Billy Balls. And they were
hot on it because they saw a big box, you know,
how the fucking lawyers are because it was an obvious
civil suit. No, but it's another thing that I just

(09:24):
can't fucking remember because my mind has just put this out,
you know. And then Rebecca says, something really weird started
to happen. I did receive a creepy threatening phone call

(09:46):
in the night avenue. I can't tell you that exactly,
but they were saying weird ship. It was just short
and I can't quite remember it. It was a scare tactic.
It was definitely a police type guy. Not long after,

(10:14):
Rebecca got the worst phone call of all I know.
It was around my mother's birthday, which is June. And uh,
that morning, I piste. These little white particles were in

(10:36):
my piss, like little weird white particles. It was really weird.
And out the window though brick was all dusty, crumbling,
you know, there was rags, rats and shipped outside the window,

(10:56):
and the windows all covered with grimy ships, and the
sunlight streams through all that grimy ship, which intensifies the
grim nous, you know. And on the radio was Jennifer

(11:16):
Holiday's song and telling you You're not God leaving, You're
the best thing I ever had. When the hospital called
and told me that they had taken him to the floor,

(11:41):
yes thirteen is favorite number for some reason, and that
he started vomiting bio which is bio is from you know,
kidney or something, and his heart stopped. He didn't he died,

(12:13):
and the dude told me to come down and identify
the body. That's how he phrased it. He said, can't
can you come down to identify the body? A William
Heightsman and I just, of course just went into this

(12:36):
kind of like it's white mm hmmmmm. Less than two

(13:10):
weeks after Billy was shot, he was dead and Rebecca
had to go to the city Morgue to identify his body.
And I went with Billy's very close friend, Robbie Bowman,
who was a musician, great musician, and Robbie went with

(13:31):
me two the medical examiner on First Avenue to identify
the body, and the little Puerto Rican girl rolled out
a gurney with a sheet over it and pulled back

(13:52):
the seat and there he was with the Prince of
the devil and a little kind of smile of mischief,
and his beard was starting to have a five o'clock shadow,
and he had a towel wrapped turban style around the
top of his head, and that fucking number on the toe.

(14:14):
And I screamed, and I said, he's not He's not
done yet. He's not done yet. I went to the
actor's funds because I needed to get money for his cremation.

(14:38):
And I explained that he was a rock and roll
piano player and that he was killed, and that I
needed help with the funeral costs and the cremation. The
little old lady, sweetest, tiny, tiny little old lady, arranged
a check. And when I went down there to the

(15:03):
funeral parlor, which is on Lexington, the man behind the
desk right inside the glass doors got on the phone
to call for the body to be transferred to the
funeral parlor, and they told him that the body had

(15:23):
been taken to Potter's Field. A Potter's Field is a
cemetery where unclaimed bodies are buried in mass graves. And
I said, what two, what the fuck? What's the fucking
phone number. I got the number of the Potter's Field

(15:46):
and I called that number, and on the other end
it was the Grave Diggers. And I says, I will
need the body. Where is the body of William Heitzman?
And they laughed, They laughed on the other end of
the phone. They laughed, and the bottom fell out of everything. Yeah,

(16:23):
my heart burst because I fucking loved him, you know.
And they told me you can just spind the rest
of your life running and pursue this. But you know what,
I don't give a funk about that. But it was

(16:43):
my heart burst, the one I love him so much.
This is a tape Rebecca made when Billy died, My

(17:03):
baby boy, right cuddle rape. I remember when he would sleep,
he low air through his little uptuous tender lips, incredible

(17:30):
bubble got His breath was so delicious that I would
snuggle up too close to where the bubble of airs
escaping through his lips and breathing. It was like breathing

(17:54):
this delectable breath of life is delicious, smelling and tasting
wreath of light. I miss you so much and my
head is sort of closing it all myself. And you

(18:14):
know when I start to feel like everything else is
kind of fading. I'm definitely gonna have to reproduce to
give some of somebody else's chance. You know, just watch
how cool they could be, because there's some spirit floating around.

(18:37):
It just needs a little human body to crawl into.
And I knew and I know who that spirit is.
And I thought, if I got a baby, well that
would be okay. You know, I remember just the fraw

(19:06):
feeling of the fucking pain of the grief, and I
would like to not remember that feeling. Quiz. The only
thing this stopped it was you being born, all right,

(19:29):
Rebecca did have a baby. Me. I'm not gonna m
m hm. You smell like clean laundry. Her, you smell

(19:53):
like clean laundry. Don't tell anybody, Ye, Billy was not
my father. I was born a couple of years after
he died. I know that Billy's sudden death broke my
mother's heart and her mind. And I also know that

(20:18):
if he hadn't been killed, I wouldn't be alive. So
much will be so much on but my goal in arms.
But I'm gonna find that, Okay, Okay, So now I

(21:09):
want to do something I have no idea how to do.
I want to track down Billy's body and try to
solve his murder. I want to give my mom an
ending to the Ballad of Billy Balls. In the next

(21:41):
chapter of the Ballad of Billy Balls, Oh my god,
I saw some hot yearbook photos in there? Did you
fucking find Billy's your book? Yeah? Ye. Crimetown is Zach

(22:10):
Stewart Pontier and Mark smirlin. The Ballad of Billy Balls
is hosted by me Io till it Right and made
in partnership with Cadence. We want to hear from you.
You can find me on the internet. Um Io loves
you on everything, and we set up a voicemail for
you to call us and share your thoughts on the case,

(22:32):
or your feelings or what you ate for breakfast. We'll
air a good one next week. The number is five
seven oh nine six zero. Our website is the Ballad
of Billie Balls dot com and you'll find a discussion
board there too. On The show is produced by me

(22:55):
Kevin Sheppard and Ryan Sweigert. Our senior producer is Austin Chold,
editing by Zack Stewart Pontier and Mark Smirling. Fact checking
by Jennifer Blackman. This episode was mixed and sound designed
by Kenny Kusiak. Music by Kenny Kusiak. Our title track

(23:19):
is Dark Allies by Light Asylum. Archival research by Brennan Reese.
If you want to know more about my story, pick
up my memoir, Darling Days Closely thanks to Drew Nellis,
Jesse Rudoy, Ula Culpa, Jamie Reisin, Wade Slitkin, Daniella Aria,

(23:40):
Rachel Lee Wright, Emily Wiedermann, Green Card Pictures, Alex Weinberg,
Alessandro Centauro, Bill Clegg, Ben Davis Orn Rosenbaum, and the
team at Caden's thirteen, and of course Rebecca, without whom
none of this would be possible. L