Ep 99: Revenge in Kaufman County, Part I

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:37):
Hello, Hello, Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of All
Cried No Cattle. I'm Shay andI'm Mary, and we have been away
for a little bit and that's mostlymy fault, and I will apologize for
that. But I have been travelingfor work quite a bit all over the
state of Texas, and I've alsohad some medical issues and some medical concerns

(00:59):
that I've had to take some timeto recuperate. So thank you for being
patient and allowing us to get toa point where we can put out our
next two episodes, which there aretwo. This is a two parter.
This is a whopper. It's adouble Yeah, it's a really big case.
There's a lot to cover, Sowhy don't we just tell the people

(01:19):
what they're they're getting into here?This is a story of politics, power
and revenge set in Kaufman County,Texas. Let's go ahead and cover our
sources right at the top. Now, this was a sensational case, well
covered nationally, but some of themost comprehensive coverage comes from the Dallas Morning

(01:40):
News. The Dallas Observer and theLa Times also published several important articles as
well. But really, there aretons of news articles regarding the case,
and we've put links to some ofthe most helpful ones in the episode notes.
There are also various official documents availableonline, including affidavits and opinions generated

(02:00):
by the court. If you'd ratherwatch something about the case, there are
two really good TV episodes available.The first is an episode of Dateline from
season nine, episode twenty two,entitled Vendetta, and the second is a
forty eight hours episode called Target Justicethat first aired in February of twenty sixteen.

(02:21):
Both are a little simplistic, butthey do a really good job of
laying out the broad details of thecase. But above all, the best
source on this case is the twentyeighteen book In Plain Sight, written by
journalist and true crime writer Katherine Casey. In Plain Sight provides an incredible amount
of context and insight into the personaland political relationships that were really at the

(02:46):
core of this story, things thatwe're only going to scratch the surface of
even with a two parter. Now. We'll be talking more about Catherine Casey's
work and her involvement with the casein the next episode. Before we really
dig in, it's important to geta sense of the backdrop of where this
story unfolded Kaufman County in northeast Texas. It's a relatively rural county with a

(03:09):
low population density. For example,at the time of this story, about
one hundred thousand people lived there,while it's next door neighbor, Dallas County,
had a population of two point fivemillion. Yeah, so I was
going to ask, this is southeastof Dallas. Correct, Yes, they're
right next to each other basically.Yeah, so kind of headed towards East

(03:32):
Texas a little bit, but justto the southeast of Dallas. So a
little wooded, little North Texas area. Yeah, and it's right on the
edge of the metroplex that is DFW. It's still considered part of DFW metroplex
area, but it's right on thecusp where you're getting into really rural kind
of Texas. Yeah, if thatmakes sense. It kind of runs the

(03:53):
full spectrum then of probably people whoare commuting into Dallas County absolutely, yeah,
also people who are just living inthat county in our very rural yeah,
exactly. Okay. Now, theKaufman County seat, so its center
of administration and where its courthouse islocated, is this small town of Kaufman
with a population of about six toseven thousand people, so again very small.

(04:18):
The events of this case are goingto make headlines across the country and
put the eyes of the nation onthis small, unassuming town. They also
deeply impacted pretty much everyone involved inthe county's leadership and criminal justice system,
from judges, attorneys, and eventhe local law enforcement. The story begins

(04:40):
with a prosecutor named Mark Hassey,and his story actually began in Dallas County.
Mark grew up and spent most ofhis life in Dallas. After graduating
from SMU's Deadman's School of Law innineteen eighty one, he began working at
the Dallas County District Attorney's office andeventually became one of their assistant district attorneys.

(05:01):
Ultimately, Mark was promoted to becomethe chief Felony prosecutor for the Organized
Crime Division of the DA's office.That meant that for several years, Mark
was responsible for prosecuting all the worstgang activity Dallas had to offer. A
lot of drug trafficking and manufacturing andmurder, and of course many cases involving

(05:23):
members and leaders of gangs and drugcartels. Okay, so it sounds like
he's been busy He's probably had apretty full caseload throughout his career in Dallas.
Yes, during his early career withthe Dallas District Attorney's office, that's
a great way to put it.Mark was called a bulldog in the courtroom,

(05:43):
incredibly knowledgeable and very sharp. Infact, people said he can memorize
and higher opening statements, so hecould give very dramatic and impactful speeches to
sway juries in the state's favor.Outside the courtroom, Mark was known as
a really funny guy and a hugeanimal lover, but his biggest hobby was
flying. He'd started flight training inhigh school and got his license in college,

(06:09):
and had since racked up mechanics,engine, and instrument certifications, so
he became very adept at building andworking on aircraft as well. Oh wow,
And this was just like a hobbysof his on the side. That's
really cool. If I was ableto do that at some point, I'd
love to get into flying and learninghow to fly. Oh I know,
right. Well. He loved itso much that in nineteen eighty eight he

(06:32):
left his old job behind and hedecided to unite both of his passions the
law and flying, and he openedup his own private practice specializing in aviation
law. What. Yeah, apparently, because that's what he did. What
a niche Yeah. And he alsohe also purchased a little airplane hangar in

(06:54):
rock Wall and started fixing up oldplanes as well. So I think it
allowed him to kind of pursue hishobby on the side. Oh sure.
In addition to that, that's interesting. Oh and for those of you that
don't know, Rockwall is in EastDallas, Yes, yeah, it's also
where he lived. In nineteen ninetyfive, Mark took part in a huge
event called Freedom Flight America in commemorationof the fiftieth anniversary of the end of

(07:18):
World War Two. Hundreds of pilotswere flying across the country together and a
huge convoy making several stops in differentcities along the way. That's pretty cool.
Yeah, And this was a reallyspecial event planned to honor the veterans
of World War Two. So werethey flying like World War two type vehicles?
They were? Yeah, And Markhimself was flying a T six single

(07:42):
engine airplane, which was one ofthe trainer aircraft that was used by pilots
in the Air Force during World WarTwo. Cool Mark had also participated in
the organization of the event over thecourse of two years, because this was
obviously a huge thing. Yeah,So he's like a mover and shaker in
that community that's getting it all together. The group was flying over Virginia towards

(08:05):
the end of the tour when Marknoticed that the oil pressure in his engine
was dramatically dropping. So the gaugewas telling him that there was something going
on with his oil pressure, andI believe at the time, I believe
they later figured out that the oil, the engine oil was leaking. Oh
that didn't sound good exactly. Sohe called in an emergency landing and he

(08:28):
tried to make one at the nearestairport, but the engine seized up and
the plane overshot their runway and crashedinto an embankment. The impact drove Mark's
head into the plane's instrument panel,fracturing his skull and causing significant brain injuries.
Oh No, doctors were able tosave his life, but he ended

(08:50):
up suffering post traumatic amnesia, Ieat, short term memory loss. Oh
gosh. Yeah, and so that'sobviously particularly devastating in a line of works
such as being a lawyer. Yeah, and you had said he had a
great memory, and he could memorizeall these opening statements and stuff. So
he can't do that anymore. I'mguessing with all this short term memory loss.

(09:11):
Well, I mean that's the issueis you don't really know how somebody's
going to bounce back after an injuryto the brain like that isn't going to
take me years to get better?Are they ever going to get better again?
So it's it's just something that nobodycan tell unless until that person heals.
You're preaching to the choir. I'vehad a lot of head injuries,
and I don't know if I'm evergoing to be all right. I mean,

(09:33):
it's true. We see this ina lot of athletes today. I
mean, we just saw what happenedwith Tua in the NFL recently. Yeah,
the Miami Dolphins quarterback had two concussionswithin like basically a week of each
other. Yeah. After the accident, Mark underwent two years of rehabilitation.
Although he was back to flying planeswell before his recovery period was up.

(09:54):
He's still flying planes. So hegot right back up on that horse and
started flying plane again. And sureenough, Mark ended up returning to prosecution
as well. Oh wow, Sohe ended up making like a full recovery,
and in twenty ten he began workingas a chief felony prosecutor at the
Kaufman County District Attorney's Office. Andfrom everything I've heard, part of the

(10:18):
appeal of becoming an ADA in KaufmanCounty was that it was probably going to
be slower paced and less stressful thanhis old position back in Dallas County.
Right, it might be something hecould ease back into a little bit.
Yeah, right after his he'd beenout of law for a while, he
had had this really significant injury injury, and I think that's a really great

(10:39):
way of putting it. He waskind of easing himself back into law.
Yeah, smaller workload. You probablydon't have near as much drug trafficking and
gang activity. But the drug traffickingthere's still a lot of in Kaufman County.
But the gang activity, yes,No, not as much. Although
it's interesting that you mentioned that,because we're gonna going to be that's going

(11:00):
to be an angle in this case. And within a few months of Mark
joining the Kaufman County DA's office,a new boss was sworn in, the
newly elected District Attorney, Mike McClelland. Mike McClelland grew up in the small
town of Wortham, Texas, andwent to the University of Texas, where
he received a degree in history.Afterward, he entered the Army, where

(11:22):
he earned his master's degree in counseling, later becoming a clinical psychologist. He
rose to the rank of major inthe Army and retired after twenty three years,
although he stayed on in the reservesfor a short period of time.
Then, in nineteen ninety, atthe age of forty, Mike decided to
switch careers entirely and go to lawschool. Oh wow, that's a big

(11:46):
shift. Yeah, I know.And I love stories of people changing careers
later in life. Yeah, Imean you should. It has very inspiring,
isn't it. He ended up graduatingfrom the Texas Wesleyan School of Law
in nineteen ninety three. Oh that'sin Fort Worth, Yes it is,
and he began his own private practice. In two thousand and two, Mike

(12:07):
was hired on and what is nowthe Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
to handle CPS cases. So,oh, that's tough, exactly. So
these were cases involving child abuse orneglect. He also worked as a public
defender for Dallas County for a periodof time. Man, it sounds like

(12:28):
you have to have a lot ofpassion to work in those fields as a
public defender and for CPS cases.Yeah, that's right. And throughout his
career he sort of gravitated to thecases specializing in mental health issues, which
makes sense giving his background as aclinical psychologist. Yeah, that's interesting.
What an evolution into a new careerthat draws on your previous experience, that's

(12:52):
right. And then he tried toevolve again because he then started running for
office. He actually first ran fora judge position, but he lost,
and then he had previously ran forthe DA position in two thousand and six
before winning it in twenty ten.Okay, so this is something he has
a passion for him, guessing,because he's continually trying to get this position,

(13:13):
even though he didn't get it thefirst time. Yeah, that's right.
And it was a struggle for himbecause as we kind of went over
his past career, I didn't mentionanything about criminal law experience, and that's
because he actually didn't have much ofany And that's because he didn't have much
of any experience in criminal law,and that's actually fairly unusual for a district

(13:37):
attorney whose primary job is to prosecutefelonies. Right. Yeah, that's interesting
because it's quite different from everything we'velearned about Mark's background where he comes from
that kind of background of criminal law. Yeah, you're exactly right. And
you might think that they might havebudded heads because of that, but they
actually became really really good friends.They had known each other and worked with

(14:00):
each other a little bit because theyhad both worked in Dallas County for a
time, but this was the firsttime they had actually worked together in any
real basis with each other. Yeah, yeah, and they've ended up forming
this really great relationship. They basicallybecame kind of office buddies constantly like chatting
with each other and their offices,and like eating lunch together every day.

(14:24):
Apparently they really loved barbecue. Whodoesn't, And I'm sure they have great
barbecue and Kaufman. Oh I betthey do, and it's their barbecue and
law BFFs. I love it.Mike's wife, Cynthia, would also often
visit the office, bringing in cakesand cookies for the staff, and it
was a running joke about how bigof a sweet tooth Mark had and how

(14:46):
he'd always come running every time shecame in with treats. But the normal
routine at the office was shattered oneday when a huge scandal rocked the Kaufman
County political scene. Just a fewmonths after Mike took office, the county's
IT department, located in the subCourthouse building a few blocks away from the

(15:07):
courthouse, discovered that three Dell computermonitors were missing from their supply. They
checked the building security cameras and foundfootage which clearly showed Judge Eric Williams entering
the IT department, leaving with thethree monitors and exiting the building with them.
Oh, so this is the firstinstance of Judge Eric Williams. Right,

(15:31):
So, yes, why would yoube taken monitors? Well, let's
introduce this Eric character. Sure,he was forty six years old at the
time, and he was the newlyelected Justice of the Peace for Precinct one.
In fact, he'd been sworn inat the same ceremony that Mike McClellan
had been sworn in as DA justa few months before. Okay, so

(15:52):
both just as new as Mike.Yes, Now, just a little background
a little refresher on Texas law.Justices of the Peace preside over the lowest
state court, the people's court,it's often called. They hear civil and
criminal cases involving misdemeanors and small claims, tenant and landlord disputes, traffic tickets,

(16:12):
truancy cases, that sort of thing. Probably most well known for performing
marriage ceremonies. So he might beon the lowest court, but he's still
a judge, yeah, exactly.And you'd think that a judge probably wouldn't
be stealing things, right, Thatwouldn't be your first instinct. His office

(16:33):
also happened to be in the samebuilding that the IT department was in.
Now, after digging through additional footage, they found two more times that the
judge seemed to enter the IT roomand leave with items that he never requested
or told anyone about. Now,none of the things were worth much money.
Even the three computer monitors together wereonly valued at about five to six

(16:57):
hundred dollars. And as Justice ofthe Peace, Eric Williams had access to
a fund of thousands of dollars withwhich he could buy any kind of office
equipment his heart desired. So what'she up to. Well, the thing
is the county required that all requestsbe submitted to and handled by the IT

(17:17):
department. That's pretty much how everyplace works, right Sure. Shockingly,
you aren't allowed to just walk inand take things without requesting them or without
telling anyone. To make matters worse, the judge's behavior, as seen in
the security footage, was deemed asbeing very suspicious. For example, each
time Eric was seen entering the ITroom and apparently taking things, it was

(17:44):
on the weekend, so there werevery few people around. Each time,
he had entered and exited the buildingthrough the back door, which he would
have known didn't log people coming andgoing, as the front entrance of the
building did. Okay, so therewas a way to track who was coming
in through the front door, butnot the backs. Seem to have been
avoiding that door. Yes, Yeah, malicious activity like he's trying to steal

(18:07):
Yes. And in the footage hewas described as sort of sneaking around,
rifling through drawers and into in cabinets, and constantly peering around corners or looking
at windows. All of the thingssuggested that he was aware that he was
doing something wrong, and he wastaking measures to prevent being busted. So

(18:27):
we might have a judge who couldbe a would be thief on our hands.
Yeah, that was the issue athand. So the IT Department handed
the footage over to the Sheriff's office, who consulted the DA's office. DA
Mike McClelland elected to prosecute the chargesagainst the judge himself, and he teamed

(18:48):
up with ADA Mark Hassie. SoMark and Mike are teaming up to do
this prosecution against a person who isa judge in their own government. That's
right, that's wild. Yeah.So about a week after the computer monitors
went missing, Judge Williams was arrestedat his office on the charge of burglary

(19:10):
of a building. A second chargeof theft of more than five hundred dollars
but less than fifteen hundred dollars wasadded later. This was usually a misdemeanor,
but since Eric was a public servant, the theft charge was automatically bumped
to a felony. This meant thatif found guilty, the judge could face

(19:30):
up to two years in prison.And that's just by nature of being a
judge committing that crime, it automaticallygets upgraded. Wow. Okay, this
is salacious, Yes, exactly.A search uncovered one of the missing monitors
on his desk in his office andanother inside his vehicle, which happened to

(19:51):
be parked outside the sub courthouse becauseI remember he was arrested in his office.
However, the third monitor was neverlocated, even after a search of
his home. So in the meantime, Eric Williams agreed to speak to investigators
and he explained that all of thiswas simply a misunderstanding. He said that
he'd been working on implementing a videoconferencing system for the ford Justices of the

(20:15):
Peace in the county. This wouldenable them to all have virtual sessions for
certain matters instead of having to travelback and forth to the courthouse or to
the jail. Okay, maybe he'sjust forward thinking, exactly, and that's
what he's trying to explain. Healso said that he didn't quite get along
with the head of the IT department, so he decided to circumvent dealing.

(20:41):
So he decided to circumvent dealing withthe department at all by just taking what
he needed without requesting it. Yeah, he said that he didn't think it
was a big deal since it waswell known he was trying to work on
the video conferencing system and he wouldneed supplies for it. He admitted to
taking two of the three monitors,so the one that was found in his

(21:03):
office and the one in his car, And he pointed out that those two
had been found on county property,so a theft charge seemed excessive when there
was no proof that the monitors hadeven left the county property at all.
Yeah, how do you prove thatthere's any stealing of property if it's still
on the property itself, Yes,exactly. He admitted to taking the third

(21:25):
monitor at first, but said he'dreturned it to the I T Department after
discovering that it didn't work. Hesuggested that there must have been security footage
showing him returning the monitor, butthat someone tampered with it and now it
suddenly wasn't available. Okay, itsounds like it could be a misunderstanding at
this point. It kind of alsosounds like they're making a mountain out of

(21:48):
a mole hill here for a reason, like maybe he's not getting along with
other people and he's already a problem, and there's some inner politics going on
where there's a reason why they're reallyprosecuting this case. Maybe maybe, I
mean, that's I think a partof what he was saying, but it
also might be a part of reality. Sure. The arrest of the Justice

(22:12):
of the Peace was a huge scandalfor the county obviously, sure, of
course, and a total shock tothe system. Up to that point,
Eric Williams had been a well respectedpart of the Kaufman County law enforcement and
judicial scene since nineteen ninety four,when he'd first been hired on to be
the court coordinator under District Judge GlennAshworth. From there, Eric had graduated

(22:36):
from Texas Wesleyan School of Law andhad began working for Kaufman County as a
guardian ad litem, meaning he wasappointed to investigate and make recommendations in child
abuse and neglect cases in the county, so basically they're appointed to represent the
minor child's best interest. Eventually,Eric had opened up his own law office

(22:59):
right across this street from the KaufmanCounty Courthouse. On top of that,
Eric Williams was a captain and weaponsinstructor in the Texas State Guard and he
was a Sheriff's reserve officer for theKaufman County Sheriff's office. He had been
a licensed peace officer for decades,meaning he was allowed to open carry firearms

(23:19):
and make arrests. He was evena member of MENSA What. Yeah,
he had connections all throughout local lawenforcement and the justice system, from police
officers to private investigators, to attorneysand judges, many who considered him not
just a colleague but a friend.I mean he even served in the same

(23:41):
regiment in the State Guard as theKaufman Chief of Police. So he's very
well connected, very intelligent too,Yes, absolutely, Now, although some
considered Eric Williams a little strange.For example, for fun, he often
rode around town on his segue wearingfull camo combat fatigues with an AR fifteen

(24:04):
strapped to his back. Why,I mean, every town scout with somebody
who does this. I'm fine.I think it's probably not the justice of
the piece though. Yeah, ButI mean he also takes his position as
somebody in the Texas State Guard,a sheriff's preserve officer very seriously. Wow,
he's a Kaufman County's modern day seguebatman pretty much pretty much. But

(24:29):
you know, as you can see, overall He was generally regarded as an
upstanding citizen and a nice guy,and the reaction to the charges was mixed.
Some people agreed that the evidence wasclear that he had stolen the computer
monitors for personal use, but othersthought that the charges against him were pretty
ridiculous, saying that he was basicallybeing threatened with jail time for essentially avoiding

(24:52):
some paperwork. Hmm, yeah,I can see that, But that wasn't
all. Eric claimed that the wholething was a setup, a convenient way
to get him shunned and humiliated,all orchestrated by one man in particular,
DA Mike McClelland. You see,Mike and Eric had known each other for

(25:14):
quite some time, since they bothhad worked cases as attorneys involving cps,
yeah, similar fields, and itsaid that they never really got along to
begin with. Then, during Mike'sfirst run for the DA position in two
thousand and six, Eric wrote anopen letter that was published in the local
newspaper, the Kaufman Herald. Inthe letter, he very loosely hinted that

(25:40):
Mike had done something bad or unethicalduring their work together, and he urged
people to vote for his opponent insteadmere days later. Mike went on to
lose the election by a very smallmargin, and it's possible that Eric's open
letter might have played a role inthe defeat. Okay, well we're we're
starting to see some scars here,yes, So either way, Eric maintained

(26:04):
that Mike presented him for the letterand had steered the DA's office to prosecute
him because of a personal grudge.Using this argument, his lawyers even tried
to have Mike removed from the case, but Mike denied having any hard feelings
about the letter. He testified atthe hearing that he believed his opponent had
been behind the letter the whole time, and that his opponent had quote just

(26:27):
found someone dumb enough to sign it. Yeah, it does sound personal.
He said that otherwise, he andEric didn't know each other and they hadn't
really spoken other than a few words. The judge ended up allowing Mike to
remain on the case. Together,Mike and Mark tried to offer Eric a

(26:47):
deal. They asked him to pleadguilty to abuse of office, a misdemeanor,
and resign his position as Justice ofthe peace. In return, he
would serve probation. So no jailtime, and he would be able to
keep his license to practice law.So it sounds like Mike and Mark are
giving him an opportunity to walk awayand continue working and being active in law,

(27:12):
but not be in that position anymore, which, quite frankly, I
feel like it was a fairly fairdeal. It's one of those things where
it almost seems polite, whether likewe're giving you an opportunity to walk away.
Yeah. But Eric, unwilling toplead guilty, refused the offer,
and so the case moved forward totrial in March of twenty twelve. At

(27:33):
trial, Mike and Mark hammered Eric, calling him a liar, a crooked
official, and a thief. Meanwhile, part of Eric's defense was accusing the
DA's office, and specifically Mike McClelland, of having a political vendetta against him,
and that the case was quote anattempt to settle a political grudge.

(27:55):
In the end, though, thejury sided with his state and found Eric
guilt on both counts. Who thetea is getting spilt? M But the
most interesting stuff came out in thepunishment phase, where Eric's fate would be
decided. Mike and Mark brought outtwo witnesses whose testimony was hoped to demonstrate
that Eric wasn't just a thief,but that he was dangerous and potentially violent.

(28:21):
The first witness was an attorney namedJohn. He testified that about a
year earlier, he and Eric weresupposed to have a big meeting with another
attorney and all their clients together,but there had been misunderstanding with the meeting
time. The whole situation had beenresolved very easily, according to John,
but not before Eric had showed upat his office screaming that he was going

(28:45):
to kill him, his wife,his kids, burn his house down,
and stab him to death. OhGod. John said that he thankfully wasn't
at the office at the time,and that another attorney had been able to
talk Eric down. Eric's reaction wasobviously wildly disapproportionate to the situation. Basically

(29:06):
threatening to murder someone in their familyover a scheduling conflict. Yeah. Their
next witness had an even more harrowineinteraction with Eric. Her name was Janice.
She said that they had casually starteddating a while, but she ended
up breaking things off with him.She said that at first he seemed to
take the breakup well, but thenext time she saw him was at another

(29:30):
court coordinator's conference, where he approachedher and asked her to have dinner with
him. When she turned him down, he took out a pistol and told
her that he wanted to give itto her son, who was twelve years
old and whom Eric had never met. Yeah, that's weird exactly. That's
kind of how Janice felt. Shefelt very uncomfortable, and she basically tried

(29:53):
to ignore him. But what doesthat even mean? Don't know. Does
he mean he wants to give itto him, like to shoot her son,
or just like well he was putting, he was playing it off like
I want to give this pistol toyour son. I don't know if it
was meant to be a threat atthat point or it was meant to be
a gift. I don't know.Obviously, very very weird, A weird

(30:15):
thing to say to somewhat. Yeah, But later that night he approached her
once again. She said, hetold her I have a gun. If
you walk away, I'll use it. I don't have anything to lose what
So at this point, this iswhere she becomes very afraid and she starts
to cry. She was able toget away from him, and she called

(30:37):
the police officers to search the conferencearea for him, but he was gone.
Couldn't find him. Officers even postedup outside of her hotel room that
night all night long, and henever showed up. The next morning,
they escorted her to the conference center. She walked in and there was Eric,
so she reported him to the policeofficer who was there, and they

(31:02):
took him away. She said thatshe had considered pressing charges, but she
later received a phone call from investigatorsurging her to drop the matter. She
said that they told her that JudgeAshworth, Eric's boss at the time,
was taking responsibility for the situation andthat he would ensure that Eric would never

(31:22):
bother her again, and so sheagreed to drop the matter. Janie's testimony
drove home the idea that Eric wasdangerous and it seemed that he had used
his connections to avoid prosecution before.Yeah, it's definitely what it seems like.
Yeah, So Mike and Mark usedJanice and John's stories to argue that

(31:44):
Eric was deserving of the maximum sentenceof two years in prison. They were
basically saying, he's not just athief, this is a man who was
dangerous. He has done dangerous things, made very strange and violent threats against
people, yeah, and has ahistory of using its connections to get out
of YEAH. Mike said that Ericwas quote a man bereft of honor and

(32:05):
told the judge and told the judgequote, You're not going to rehabilitate him,
but you can get him out ofthe public eye. You can get
him, You can get him awayfrom these people who are absolutely terrified of
him. Meanwhile, Eric's wife offifteen years, Kim, testified on his
behalf. She said that Eric wasa good man and a good husband.

(32:28):
She described how he was the solebreadwinner of their household since she was very
ill. She suffered from advanced rheumatoidarthritis as well as other health conditions that
prevented her from working. She saidthat Eric took care of her as well
as her mother and father, bothof whom were both elderly and ailing,

(32:49):
and she said he did it allwhile caring for his own illness, as
Eric himself had Type one diabetes.The defense hoped that Kim's testimony would help
the judge sympathize with Eric and seethat imprisoning him would negatively impact many of
the innocent people around him. Ultimately, maybe Kim's words did help the judge

(33:09):
sympathize, because he ended up givingEric no prison time, just two years
of probation along with eighty hours ofcommunity service. Okay, so he's looking
at what he was looking at beforethe trial, where he might get a
chance to just walk away with probation. No, sir, because even if
he avoided prison, Eric lost everythingelse. Oh yeah, he loses his

(33:31):
ability to practice law, to bea lawyer. He was quickly removed from
office. He lost his license topractice law. With that came the reality
of losing his position of power,his career, his income, and also
his and his wife's health insurance.Oh wow. Yeah, he did lose

(33:52):
everything then, exactly. And eventuallyEric was also excused from the Texas State
Guard, something that he was quiteproud of and something that I think was
a big part of his identity.So these computer monitors worth about five hundred
dollars ended up costing him absolutely everything, yea, his whole life. Yeah,

(34:12):
and that wasn't even in the endof it. The DA's office was
planning another case against him, accusinghim of misappropriating money from the county's Law
Library to make other unapproved purchases forhis office. That meant another trial with
all the costs associated with it,along with another threat of prison time.
Wow. So things were pretty badfor Eric Williams right now. But it

(34:36):
was a big win for the DA'soffice, and it helps solidify Mike McClelland
as a DA who was adept atcriminal law despite his inexperience, as well
as someone who was an elected officialwilling to fight corruption in the county government.
Obviously, Mike and Mark were happywith the win and even bragged about
it a little. However, friends, family, and colleagues around My and

(35:00):
Mark reported that they were also concernedwith how Eric would react now that his
life had been essentially destroyed. Right, I mean he is a gun loving
kind of guy. He's made threatswith guns before. He seems kind of
dangerous, I mean exactly right.They knew from his work in law enforcement
and the military, or at leastalongside those organizations, and as the weapons

(35:22):
instructor for his regiment in the TexasState Guard, Eric owned a small arsenal
of weapons. In fact, they'dfound weapons in all of their searches related
to the computer monitors so they'd foundweapons in his office, in his car,
all throughout his home. You know, it was just everywhere. But
they were all legal, right,absolutely, Yes, that in of itself

(35:45):
wasn't super concerning considering the setting,small town Texas, plenty of people collect
guns as a hobby, even Mikehimself, probably due to his military background.
He had a ton of guns andloved guns. But they were worried
because of their investigation into his background. They uncovered so many stories of Eric's
bizarre, angry meltdowns and threats ofviolence over much less serious manners than a

(36:10):
felony conviction and loss of livelihood.Yeah. No, I could see their
their reason for concern too, ifhe's already threatened people before and much smaller
matters than what is he going todo now? Yeah? In fact,
Mike warned his staff privately to keepan eye out for Eric, and he
also began encouraging them to get theirown concealed carry licenses. Mark even renewed

(36:36):
his license to carry and began carryinga handgun around him as well, something
he never really had done before,even while prosecuting Dallas's worst drug cartel related
crimes. Oh wow, Yes,so as a direct reaction to this case.
Well, I mean that's the question. Did he start carrying specifically because
of his fear of Eric Williams orwas it he was just getting into the

(36:59):
culture of Coafman County, especially withhis boss and friend who liked to carry
guns. There is plenty of evidenceto support the fact that Mike and Mark
personally considered Eric to be unstable andperhaps dangerous, but to what degree they
took his that seriously is under debate. But eventually the dusk settled on the

(37:22):
situation and things around the DA's officelargely went back to normal. The old
Justice of the Peace, who Erichas beaten in the election, was installed
in his place, and Mike andMark, as well as the people of
Kaufman County were largely happy to moveon. So about a half a year
or so went by. The DA'soffice was located in the courthouse in downtown

(37:45):
Kaufman, and just like most littletowns that are the county seat, the
courthouse is at the center of thetown square, with lots of small businesses
and offices and shops and restaurants allaround it, and it basically dominates the
downtown area of the oh believe me, as I've been driving through all of
Texas recently. This is every littletown, yeah, Texas. They have

(38:06):
a little square with shops around it, and the courthouse is dead center and
you have to literally drive around thecourthouse to go through the town. That's
right. That's exactly how Weatherford isset up. Traffic circle. Yeah,
because Weatherford is the county seat ofParker County. That's right. So,
as you can imagine, there's alot of bustling activity immediately around the courthouse

(38:30):
area of lots of people either walkingor driving by employee. Parking for the
courthouse was located offsite. Now,there were a few different lots available,
but the one Mark Hassie used waslocated about a block down the street from
the courthouse on East Grove Street.Even though it's only a street away from
the courthouse and the town square,this is a pretty secluded little area.

(38:55):
The lot itself is your average littleparking lot, just a big slap of
concrete with lines drawn on it,open to the public and with no security.
So even though it was secluded,parking there meant a fairly short and
easy walk to the courthouse. Markparked his truck in this lot every morning
in the same parking spot. Themorning of Thursday, January thirty, first,

(39:20):
twenty thirteen was no different. Justafter eight thirty am, Mark parked
in his usual spot, grabbed hisbriefcase, and began walking out of the
parking lot. When he got tothe sidewalk lining the street, Mark was
suddenly approached by a masked man dressedall in black. Three eyewitnesses were in
the immediate vicinity and saw what happenednext. The first was a worker from

(39:45):
the Gomez Painton body shop located rightacross the street. The second was a
woman in a building nearby, andthe third was an attorney named Linda,
who was in her car driving upthe street and headed to the parking lot
when all of this happened. Thewitnesses said that the man in black was

(40:06):
dressed in full tactical gear, includinga bulletproof vest and military boots, and
that he was wearing some sort ofcovering over his whole face. They guessed
something like a balaclava. He accostedMark and shoved him, and Mark pushed
him in return. A few wordswere exchanged, and the worker at the

(40:27):
auto shop said he thought he heardMark say I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
The masked man then pulled out agun, raised it to the side of
Mark's face, and pulled the trigger. Oh my god. He continued firing
five more times at Mark as hepushed him to the ground. He then
spun around, pulled out a secondgun, and fired two more shots into

(40:50):
the air as he began running towardsa light colored sedan parked in the parking
lot near where Mark had parked histruck. The man jumped into the passing
side of the car and it tookoff, turned out into the street and
began driving away. Linda, theattorney in her car, witnessed the shooting
happened right in front of her.She witnessed the entire thing, and she

(41:14):
had milliseconds to process what she'd justseen and decide what she was going to
do about it. Sure, yeah, it's super shocking. Well, she
was already in her car, soher first thought was to follow the vehicle
as she drove. She grabbed hercell phone and she started dialing nine one
one, with her intention, ofcourse, to report the shooting and the

(41:36):
location of the getaway car, butto her frustration, she kept dialing,
kept dialing. She couldn't get through. It turns out later she would find
out that due to her panic andher confusion, she was kind of she
was using a new cell phone andshe was unfamiliar with it, so that
was kind of part of it aswell. All these things converged together to

(41:58):
that meant that she kept dialing ninenine one one one, But that was
something that she only figured out later. All at the time it was she
just couldn't get through to nine oneone, but she had the best interest
in mind. Oh. Of course. She also kept looking for a license
plate for the getaway car, butshe saw that the getaway car didn't have
one at all. After following thecar for about three blocks, Linda gave

(42:22):
up her pursuit and she returned tothe man she'd just seen shot. She
found him lying face up in apool of blood, still breathing, and
she began trying to help him asbest she could. Within a few minutes,
a Kaufman police officer arrived at thescene, having heard the shots from
a few blocks away. He tookover for Linda and trying to help Mark.

(42:45):
At this point, a crowd hadstarted to gather around Mark, and
someone realized that the person lying therewas ada Mark Hassie. That's actually when
Linda herself realized that it was him. Even though she'd been she'd seen his
shooting and been working on him herself, she didn't realize it was him.
She knew him personal and also hegot shot in the face, right,

(43:06):
Yeah, that's true. After afew minutes, the ambulance arrived and Mark
was taken to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. However, he arrived without a heartbeat,
and he was declared dead soon after. He was still wearing the gun
that he had been carrying around onhim, so he never drew it.
No, it was thought that hehad been ambushed so quickly that he hadn't

(43:27):
had time to go for it.And it was also winter time, and
he had been wearing a very heavycoat, and it was thought that that
probably sort of impeded him from gettingto it. Anyways. Yeah, Mark
had been shot five times, withthe most severe wound in the side of
his face in front of his leftear. The bullet had passed through a
skull and broke apart in his brain, causing massive damage. From the eyewitness

(43:52):
accounts, this had also been thevery first shot point blank to the side
of the head in execution where Markhad been looking right at his killer.
So the other shots were just maliciouslydone. That that was probably the killing
blow, right, the one probably. Yes. The other four shots were

(44:13):
to his back and they went throughhis chest and logs. They also all
broke apart and caused a significant amountof internal damage. Although no intact bullets
were recovered, they were able tocollect several bullet fragments from Mark's body,
as well as another large fragment thathad gotten lodged in the jacket that Mark

(44:34):
was wearing. So we don't havea full intact bullet, but we have
these fragments. Were they able topiece enough at these fragments back together or
analyze some of the fragments to getballistics evidence, Yes, they were.
They were able to get enough bulletfragments. I don't know if they could
recover like a complete bullet that wasfired from one of these weapons, but
it was It was a pretty goodamount of evidence. They were also able

(44:58):
to at the scene of the crimerecover bullet fragments that had been lodged in
the cement sidewalk from him shooting,you know, basically into the ground Okay,
there was one. There was atleast one that he shot that did
not hit Mark, but that wasI think probably near him, and I
think that's where the most of thebullet fragments came from. Gotcha. However,

(45:19):
there were no shell casings recovered atthe shooting scene, since none of
the witnesses reported seeing the shooter stoppingto pick shell casings up. This meant
that it was likely that both gunsused in the shooting had been revolvers.
Yeah, because they don't inject theircasings. Instead, they keep them within
the cylinder of the weapon. Right. So yeah, So what's up with

(45:40):
this tan sedan that's missing a licenseplate? Were there any other details about
the maker, model or anything likethat. Unfortunately no, So all the
witnesses agreed that they get away vehiclewas a light colored sedan, but none
of them was sure on the makeor the model. Eventually they all together

(46:01):
settled on it being a Ford Taurustor something like it. Now, that's
a very basic car. There's amillion of them on the street. Yes,
they weren't even really particular shirt onthe color. So it was either
gold or light colored or white.They weren't really sure exactly, but it's

(46:21):
a very mass produced vehicle so hardto track down. And also like off
white colors, there's probably some ofthe more popular, like if you're not
going to have a white specially inTexas. Yeah, because of the heat,
they tend to avoid dark So there'sprobably just thousands of these in the
county exactly. And no one gota good look at the driver at all,

(46:42):
other than to say it looked likea shadowy figure wearing black and some
kind of face balaclava, you saidon the shooter, Yes, so nobody
could see the driver enough to seeif they were wearing anything in particular.
So yeah, there's no real descriptionof the shooter or a driver either besides
the military fatigue or the swat gear. You know that they were looking so

(47:07):
military or law enforcement adjacent looking items, is what he was wearing. Yeah,
it was mostly dark colored, right, Yes, it was all black
from from what they said. Man, that's not a lot to go on,
No, not at all. Itwas, however, obvious right away
that this was no random attack,but that Mark had been murdered in the

(47:28):
line of duty, a planned,an organized murder of a public servant meant
to send a message the fact thatit was in broad daylight near the courthouse
with no concern for witnesses seemed tounderscore that, yeah, it seems like
a hit. Yeah, it alsowasn't just a lone shooter, as we
said, We know that there wereat least two people involved, maybe more.

(47:51):
So it was immediately feared that thiscould mean further attacks against the DA's
office, the courthouse, or evenpublic places or rules. So within minutes
of the shooting, law enforcement convergedon this town square and they shut everything
down, including the courthouse and otherplaces around. Kaufman were put on lockdown
as well, schools especially. Ican't even imagine what Mike's family is thinking

(48:15):
at this point. Of course,yes, everybody is terrified. Everybody who
works with him is terrified. Plusthey have to deal with the fact that
their friend was just murder Yeah,for sure. So of course there was
a mass community response to this murder. It was especially scary for the people
who worked at or had business atthe courthouse. Remember that all of those

(48:39):
people had to eventually leave that dayand walk back out to their cars when
the killers still on the loose,literally through the crime scene. Because I
guess they're all parked in that parkingline. Not all of them, but
a lot of them. Yet,Oh my goodness. Eventually, fully armed
officers and swap gear were brought intoescort every one at the courthouse to their

(49:00):
vehicles, and this procession continued forweeks to come, with many judges and
attorneys even opting to wear bulletproof vestson their journeys to and from the courthouse.
Other Kaufman County officials and leaders evenreceived round the clock armed security at
their homes. When the town squareand the courthouse did open back up,

(49:22):
eventually, security was ramped up tothe maximum. Obviously, everyone was really
on edge, wondering if something elsewas going to happen. Sure, Yeah,
who's going to be next? Yeah? Am I a target? Now?
Mike McClelland actually was not at thecourthouse when the shooting occurred, so
he was one of the first peopleto hear about Mark's death. He was

(49:44):
devastated by the news. Mark wasa man he respected as a lawyer and
as a friend, and so itwas a painful loss for him personally.
Yeah, they were very close,but Mike also felt confident about who was
responsible. The recently disgraced ex judgeEric Williams. Okay, so he's already

(50:06):
trying to point the finger at Eric. Oh. Yes. In fact,
he was so sure that Eric wasinvolved that he sought out Sheriff David Burns
and asked that he send deputies outto speak with Eric right away. And
so, just two hours after Mark'smurder, a sheriff's deputy and constable appeared
at Eric's house to question him.Eric lived in Kaufman, not too far

(50:28):
from the courthouse, and he answeredthe door wearing a sling on his arm.
Okay, answeresting, is this likea fake sling? Tell me more
well. He explained that he'd recentlyhad shoulder surgery because he suffered from a
condition called frozen's shoulder. This iswhere the joint capsule becomes really stiff and

(50:52):
tight, and it causes pain andimmobility of the shoulder. Now, immediately
this allayed a lot of suspicion againstEric. You need considerable arm strength to
shoot a gun, and the eyewitnesseshadn't described the shooter as in a sling
or nursing any kind of injury oranything, so it didn't seem possible that

(51:13):
Eric was the killer. Okay.The officers told him that Mark Hassey had
been murdered earlier that morning, andthey asked him where he'd been all day.
Eric appeared shocked and saddened by thenews, and he said that he'd
left earlier in the day to gopick up prescription for his wife, Kim,
but said that otherwise he had beenhome at the house all day alone

(51:36):
with her. Eric allowed the officersto look around his house, and they
didn't notice any blood, weapons ortactical gear in the open that would have
connected Eric to the crime. Therewas nothing at all. Eric also agreed
to a gunshot residue test, whichlater came up negative. All of this
from Eric's cooperation, along with hisapparent injured shoulder, help to absolve him

(52:00):
of much suspicion right from the start. He also agreed to have his attorneys
sent over all of his medical recordsregarding his frozen shoulder injury, as well
as the surgery he'd had to correctthe issue. Okay, so he appears
to be cooperative at this point.My only thing is, if this person
was really wearing all this tactical gear, would he have any gunshot residue on

(52:23):
his flesh? Or his hands andhis arms if he was covered up and
all those materials are stored elsewhere.Well, we can also remember that a
gunshot residue test, really all yougot to do is wash your hands and
you would you can be found negative. So it's not. But again,
it's all of these things together ismaking people think it can't be ear It

(52:44):
seems like the normal process to likeget an alibi, you know, where
were you, and it seems likehe's being cooperative exactly. But while Eric's
alibi seemed to ease some of Mike'ssuspicions that Eric was the shooter, he
did continue to remain fairly outspoken thathe believed Eric was somehow involved. By

(53:05):
the afternoon of Mark's death, lawenforcement officers from local, state, and
federal agencies, including the Kaufman PoliceDepartment, the Kaufman County Sheriff's Department and
Constable's Office, Texas Department of PublicSafety officers including the Texas Rangers, and
Asians from the FBI, ATF andd EA all gathered in Kaufman to help

(53:28):
aid in the investigation. I mean, obviously, this is like priority number
one in the country at this point. Oh yeah, Quickly, the gathered
group formed a task force headed byKaufman Police Chief Chris Albaugh. Now,
with all of these agencies involved,it meant that resources were fairly unlimited,
and immediately they set about combing throughMark's current caseload as well as his old

(53:52):
cases back from Dallas County, hopingto find a lead in any of them.
Sure, but Mark had executed hundredsof cases over the course of his
decades long career, many of theminvolving violent offenders, murderers, members of
gangs, and drug cartels, andevery one of the cases he prosecuted involved

(54:15):
a potential suspect. So you cansee what an enormous undertaking this was.
Yeah, sure, I bet that'sreally difficult to come through all of those
and be like, could any ofthese could have involved someone who wanted to
kill Mark? Yeah? The taskforce also gave state and federal agents the
opportunity to talk to local law enforcement, many of whom knew Eric Williams personally.

(54:37):
Remember that Alba, who now headedthe entire task force, was actually
in Eric's regiment in the State Guard. They were friends. Yes, So
although there were a few dissidents whomaybe kind of thought Eric maybe they should
take a look at him a littlebit harder. Overwhelmingly, the response was

(54:57):
that there was no way Eric Williamswas involved. Now, Mike didn't mention
his suspicions against Eric Williams publicly,but he did make a statement at a
press conference about Mark's death, quote, we lost a really, really good
man. He was an excellent friendand a spectacular prosecutor. I hope that
the people who did this are watching, because we're confident that we're going to

(55:20):
find you, pull you out ofwhatever hole you're in, and let the
pupil of Kaufman County prosecute you tothe full extent of the law. He
went on to appeal for anyone withknowledge of the case to step forward,
saying, quote, anything you cando to help us get our hands on
this scum would be appreciated. Eventually, though, due to the close connection

(55:42):
to the case, Mike, aswell as the rest of the Kaufman District
Attorney's office were removed from the case, and two special prosecutors from Dallas named
Toby Shook and Bill Wurski were appointedto take over. That makes sense,
Yeah, it does. Now.It's no wonder that in a huge case
like this, involving the murder ofan Ada in a small Texas town,

(56:06):
became huge news across the nation.Although we can all agree that the job
of a criminal prosecutor is a dangerousone bound to make a lot of potentially
dangerous people very unhappy, the truthis that very few prosecutors have been murdered
in the line of duty in modernUS history. Yeah, you're right.

(56:27):
It does not happen as much asmaybe you might think it could happen,
or have a potential to happen.It just it's not something that's in the
news very often. Yeah, Imean, according to the La Times,
the National District Attorney's Association stated thatMark Hassey was just the twelfth prosecutor in
the nation's history to be killed inthe line of duty. Wow, so

(56:49):
this is a very rare crime.That makes it more sensational, And honestly,
I think the setting of something likethis happening in like this little rural
town also may this story spread,And unfortunately, in this case, what
also spread was a whole lot ofmisinformation. Within a day or two of
Mark's murder, articles and news pieceslinking his death to the Aryan Brotherhood of

(57:15):
Texas or the ABT started popping upreally yes, and very quickly the ABT
angle began dominating the conversation about thecase. Do you know much about the
ABT, No, I don't.I know that they're bad. Yes,
they are bad. We could allagree on that, but I've never really

(57:36):
done any rabbit hole exploration about liketheir their organization, how it works here
you go, Okay, the ABTis a white supremacist street and prison gang
formed right here in Texas. Now, because of the name, you might
have assumed that they are affiliated withthe Aryan Brotherhood, the white supremacist gang

(57:58):
that formed in the Calor fourn Youprison system in the nineteen sixties. Yes,
that would have been me. Iwould have raised my hand at that
moment. Okay, Well, youwould have been wrong, because back in
nineteen eighty one, the founders ofthe ABT contacted the Aryan Brotherhood leadership and
requested approval to form their own chapterwithin the Texas prison system, and the

(58:20):
Arian Brotherhood said no. Undaunted,they went ahead and decided to call themselves
the Arian Brotherhood of Texas anyway,making them I guess some sort of unofficial
fan club. Weird, Yeah,yeah, and that weird. That being
said, today, the Aryan Brotherhoodof Texas is considered to be one of

(58:42):
the largest and most violent gangs inthe nation, with numerous murders attributed to
them. There's estimated to be aboutthree thousand members of the ABT inside Texas
prisons, hundreds more in federal custody, and than an additional number of members
out on the streets. In fact, that's what makes the ABT so dangerous

(59:04):
is the fact that they have memberson the inside and the outside of prison.
Right now, Remember they aren't justa hate group. The ABT is
actively involved in organized crime, withtheir big moneymaker being the manufacturer and trafficking
of meth all across Texas. Andif you've lived in Texas, you know
got a big meth problem. Imean, I guess that's across the country,

(59:24):
really Yeah, meth and vetamins reallybig, especially in North Texas too,
in Tarrant and Dallas County. Andthat's actually something I learned from from
this case is the ABT both makesand traffics meth. And so if you're
byn meth, I guess you're supportingthe ABT, which is really scary.
Yeah, I mean even you know, in the past couple of decades,

(59:46):
it was always kind of an ideathat if you were you biker, meth
was a thing. You know.ABT meth. They have strongholds in several
towns where some of my family havebeen, even in like Azel, which
is northeast or northwest of Fort Worth, there's a big presence of them.
They're selling meth. Yeah, Sothe question is how did the ABT get

(01:00:08):
tangled up in the investigation of Mark'smurder? Right Well, in August of
twenty twelve, about five months beforeMark's murder, Coffin County Chief Prosecutor Brandy
Fernandez tried and won a case againsta member of the ABT. This man
had kidnapped another ABT member to punishhim for skipping their ABT meetings. This

(01:00:35):
all had ended up with a hugeshootout with law enforcement. I don't think
anybody was killed, but obviously itwas a big mess. Sure, Brandy
Fernandez had secured two life sentences againstthe leader. This was a big win
for the county obviously, and afterwardshe had continued working with federal agencies in
other cases against the ABT. Threemonths later, in November, Houston an

(01:01:00):
FBI secured indictments against fifteen members andleaders of the ABT on racketeering charges.
The Houston FBI gave a huge pressconference about the charges, celebrating what they
called a huge blow to the organization. At the end of the press conference,
they thanked other agencies for their help, including the Kaufman County District Attorney's

(01:01:23):
Office, referring, of course,to Brandy Fernandez's work. Okay, so
we have this big ABT member that'sbrought down, and then a larger crackdown
on ABT that's happening in Houston that'sassociated with their work in Kaufman County.
Yes. Now, the very nextmonth, the Texas Department of Public Safety

(01:01:45):
issued a bulletin saying that there wascredible evidence to suggest that the ABT was
planning to retaliate. It read quote, high ranking members are involved in issuing
orders to inflict mass casualty or deathto law enforcement officials who were involved in
cases where Aryan Brotherhood of Texas arefacing life sentences of the death penalty.

(01:02:08):
Quote. Okay, well that seemsserious. Well, I mean kind of.
This really was just sort of avague warning that the DPS was issuing
to law enforcement. This did notgo out to the media. This just
went out to law enforcement in responseto some sort of vague intel they had
about the ABT. So it wasall very vague. But then the next

(01:02:31):
month after that is when Mark Hassee, Chief Ada of Coffin County, was
murdered. The timing of the murderand relation to the threats of the ABT
immediately made reporters suspect that they wererelated and that Mark's death was just the

(01:02:51):
first in a series of planned attacksagainst law enforcement or the criminal justice system.
Based on that DPS bullet that wentout, yea, they got window
basically, yes, so they're expectinglike a deluge of other attacks, and
yes, of course, and thepeople really doubled down when reports started circulating

(01:03:12):
that Mark Hassie had been heavily involvedin the prosecution against the ABT. Yeah.
Sure. The problem, however,was that it simply wasn't quite true.
Kaufman County had two district courts,and Brandy Fernandez was the chief prosecutor
of the other one, so shebasically had Mark Hassie's job in the other

(01:03:36):
district court in Kaufman County. NeitherMark nor anyone at his office had been
involved in the recent charges against theABT at all. So it's like if
they would have attacked anyone, theywould have attacked her, Yes, exactly.
It didn't make sense why he wouldbe on their hit list at all,
nor why he would be their primarytarget. Interesting. In addition,

(01:04:00):
honestly, authorities didn't believe that theABT was sophisticated enough to pull something like
this off. They were known fortheir meth operation, not for skilled assassination.
It just wasn't their style. Buteven though authorities were pretty sure that
the ABT wasn't involved in Mark's death, this angle was picked up and spread

(01:04:23):
far and fast by the media,So just about everything that you read or
that you watched at the time essentiallyblamed Mark's murder on the ABT. Now,
as Catherine Casey so beautifully points outin her book, the press biding
on this ended up having real worldconsequences for this case. With their name

(01:04:44):
suddenly in the media, many ABTmembers serving prison time decided that this was
a great opportunity to capitalize on thishot news story. Multiple members in prison
started claiming that they had information pertainingto Mark Cassie's murder, trying to leverage
that for lighter sentences or other perks. Oh okay, so we're going off

(01:05:06):
on the wild goose chase now,yeah, a little bit. And of
course the tiplines Scott flooded with tonsof tips regarding ABT in their possible involvement
with Mark's death and etc. Etc. A considerable amount of the task force
time was used up chasing down allof these leads that started pouring in regarding

(01:05:28):
the ABT, simply because the mediakept reporting these links that really weren't there.
Then, on March nineteenth, abouta month and a half after Mark's
death, another murder of an officialin the criminal justice system shocked the country.
This time in Colorado. It wasthe state's Chief of Prisons, Tom

(01:05:49):
Clements, who had been found shotto death in the entryway of his house.
The suspect in his murder was twentyeight year old Evan Spencer Ebb,
an ex convict and member of thetwo eleven Crew, a white supremacist gang
within the Colorado prison system. Ebelwas suspected of first murdering twenty seven year

(01:06:12):
old Domino's pizza delivery driver Nathan leonIn order to steal his uniform, which
he then used to disguise himself andpose as a pizza delivery man at the
prison chief's house. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So when he killed someone
to take over his deliveryman's yes outfit, and then show up and kill o

(01:06:32):
wo yes, wow, isn't thatcrazy? So when Tom Clements opened the
door, he of course shot himseveral times and then fled the scene,
fled the state even and this triggereda massive manhunt for him. Immediately,
there were fears that the case inColorado was connected to Mark Hassie's murder.

(01:06:54):
People wondered if the Two eleven Crewand the ABT were allies or somehow working
together to systematically kill people involved inthe criminal justice system. Sure, yeah,
I mean it seems to track.Yeah. Then two days after the
murder of the prisons chief, Abelwas killed and he shootout with police near

(01:07:15):
Decatur, Texas, only going backto Texas. Well, that's the thing,
It's only one hundred miles from Kaufman. So that further confused things because
it suggested that he had some kindof connection to Texas. Huh. The
gun that Ebel carried on him atthe time of his death was found to
match the bullets recovered at the Coloradocrime scene, but it wasn't a revolver

(01:07:39):
and wasn't therefore the weapon that theywere looking for in Mark Hassie's case.
Eventually, investigators figured out that Ebelhad been in Colorado at the time of
Hassie's murder, and ultimately it wasdetermined that the most likely reason he was
located in Texas at all was thathe was trying to flee to Mexico.

(01:08:00):
So he was traveling from Colorado toMexico after he killed the prisons chief.
So's he's not Mark's killer, butthat doesn't change the fact that these murders
could be connected via an organization ofthe Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. You're right,
so we don't have the killer inMark Cassie's case, but it still
leaves a lot of people nervous thatthere's something going on right right. By

(01:08:24):
this time, two months had passedsince Mark Cassie's murder, and even with
all the resources available, the investigationhad stalled completely. The huge task force,
consisting of so many different agencies,eventually dwindled in number and was officially
shut down entirely. But even thoughthe investigation still continued and people were still,

(01:08:45):
of course mourning Mark, things werealso slowly going back to normal.
Security at the courthouse was decreased,and eventually Mark's colleagues stopped constantly looking over
their shoulder. Security tales on KaufmanCounty officials also ended altogether, including the
detail assigned to District Attorney Mike McClellan'shome. By the time Easter weekend rolled

(01:09:10):
around, while things weren't back tonormal, they were starting to trend in
that direction. In fact, Mikeand his wife Cynthia were planning an Easter
celebration at their home, the firstbig event since Mark's death. No one
expected that the holiday weekend would bringeven more bloodshed to the Kaufman County District
Attorney's office. Oh no, Andthat is where we will end today.

(01:09:35):
But we will be back next weekto pick up right here in this part
of the story where we left off. Wow, what a fascinating tale.
I mean, we're talking about likegangs and like organized crime. I don't
know, it's a lot. Idon't know where we're going to end up
at the end of it, butI'm here for the ride and it's been

(01:09:57):
really riveting so far. So yeah, I just can't wait or part two
and the culmination of this and toget some answers and what's going on.
But in the meantime, would youlike to hear some good news? Yes,
very much. Doesn't involve dogs orcandy. No, but it does
involve space and science. Oh Ilove those things. Great, let's do

(01:10:20):
it. We'll be right back afterthis. Welcome back to the show.
This is, of course good news, and our story for you today involves

(01:10:42):
some of the things that Aaron andI love a lot, which are space
and science. And we're huge fansof probably you know, dystopian or apocalyptic
type movies like Armageddon from when wewere growing up. Great movie about to
ask roid coming and striking the Earthand what can we do about that?
Can we send astronauts onto an asteroidand break it up and save all of

(01:11:06):
humankind? Or might there be somethingwe could do otherwise? Well, tell
us the deeds a hot science deeds. I have hot science deeds for us.
This story comes to us from MPR. It was written by James Dubeck.
This is on October eleventh, sotwo weeks ago. NASA declared that

(01:11:29):
they were able to successfully knock anasteroid off course that was headed towards Earth.
This is big news. Obviously,there's been some conjecture in the astrophysics
community of can we actually do this? Can we divert an asteroid from hitting
planet Earth and save us? Ihope so. Well, this is like

(01:11:49):
the initial test to try and figureout the science of how it all works
out. So this test had hopesof developing future research into planetary defense from
rogue asteroids that were headed towards US. So this project actually involves multiple asteroids.
This is a double asteroid, Soyou have one central asteroid that's coming

(01:12:11):
towards Earth, but then a secondone that's kind of floating around it,
orbiting it. So it's a it'sa weird little coupling of asteroids that are
headed towards US. Okay, TheDouble Asteroid Redirection Test aka DART was overseen
by scientist at the Johnson Space Centerin Houston, AH. There's the Texas
connect. This is the Texas Connection, and of course there's also Kennedy Space

(01:12:35):
Center in Florida and the Jet PropulsionLaboratory. I don't know where that one
is, but they're all coordinating,it might be. Yeah, they're all
coordinating together to basically slam something intothis asteroid to see if they can change
its orbit in and around the otherasteroids. So they're attacking the little asteroid

(01:12:58):
that's orbiting around the big asteroid.Oh and see if that will change the
traratory. I never quite understood thatpart. Okay, that's why I'm here
for the beets. Wow, thankyou for these hot, hot sciences.
I love it. Okay, Okay, I got the asteroid receipts. I
assumed they were attacking just the asterOkay. Interesting. Yeah, So like

(01:13:19):
basically, I guess it's a litmustest where if you can move the smaller
asteroid and alter its orbit around thelarger asteroid, than it's a proof of
concept of how much force density ofa projectile it would take to move the
larger object. Oh okay, Andwhat they found out was that it actually

(01:13:39):
worked. They slammed a satellite metalobject into this asteroid and it actually changed
its trajectory. How it works isat the time of this test, seven
million miles away from Earth, sothis is really far away. Yeah.
Crazy. I know a lot ofthe stories made it seem like, Oh,
it was like really coming close andit was near Earth. No,

(01:14:00):
this is this is millions of milesaway from our planet. The asteroid dubbed
Dimorphous, which I feel is anevil villain, great name. It feels
like a member of the board inStar Trek. I am. It is
orbiting a larger asteroid, Didiamus okayis. Its rotation around the larger asteroid

(01:14:30):
has been observed several times, andit's usually it usually takes eleven hours and
fifty five minutes for Dimorphous to makeits complete orbit around Didiamus Okay after I
know very detailed in the hierarchy andthe lore of these two asteroids. But
after the Dart spacecraft made impact twoweeks ago, the orbit has shortened its

(01:14:55):
orbit to eleven hours and twenty threeminutes, meaning it had a basic a
half an hour change in its orbit, so it did have an effect.
Quote, this is a watershed momentfor defense and NASA Ambassador Bill Nelson said
on Tuesday to the media. Thismission shows that NASA is trying to be
ready for whatever the universe throws atus. Literally, the two asteroids pose

(01:15:20):
no threat to Earth currently, butthe test is proof of concept that if
another asteroid does appear to be headedtowards Earth, scientists have a way to
push it off course. Quote,for the first time ever, humanity has
changed the orbit of a planetary bodythat was passing near Earth. So that's
huge, right, I mean,we've affected cosmic bodies that are flying near

(01:15:44):
Earth and change their trajectory. Imean, it's it's science fiction come to
reality. It's pretty neat. It'sliterally arbigid. Although I would say I
know I saw a lot of people'sreactions were like, Okay, well this
was a harmless asteroid ate at first, but did you just change the trajectory
to where like now it's going toplumb it into Earth. Well, I

(01:16:04):
guess we'll see. They did answerthat question, saying that the alteration of
the orbiting asteroid does not cause anythreat to Earth, and of course it
is orbiting a larger asteroid, soit's it's holding it. That's why it
kind of made the perfect test becauseit was orbiting another asteroid. Well that's

(01:16:25):
good, but that would be badif, like we changed this. Hopefully,
there are a lot smarter people thanare you and I on this project.
I think they probably thought about that. Yeah, but like what a
calamity if like we'd hit this orbitingasteroid and then it shot off and it
just smashed into Washington, DC orsomething. Yeah. Now that the test

(01:16:45):
has proved successful, if an asteroidone day does threaten Earth, scientists should
be able to start developing a typeof projectile defense system with heavy dense objects
that we can use to strategically hitthe asteroids to defle them off course and
away from Earth. Cool. Isn'tthat crazy? It's cool, it's interest.
Yeah, we like it. We'reliving in the future, man.

(01:17:06):
Yeah, I'm happy that we havethis kind of proof of concept because it's
it's something that we've whole kind ofworried about, right, Yeah, and
it also brings up other dumb questionsthat again, I originally went to college
for aerospace engineering. But I don'tknow anything about how this would work.
But can you a nuke and asteroid? Should we start just collecting all of

(01:17:27):
our nukes in the event that weneed a nuke and asteroid? I don't
know how does that work? Idon't know. All I know is this
somebody who suffers from anxiety. Thisis one less thing I feel like I
have to worry about. So yes, well, NASA expects to continue monitoring
the asteroids throughout the rest of thisyear and into early next year, and

(01:17:49):
a European spacecraft is scheduled to arriveat Didiamys when it passes by in twenty
twenty seven to investigate the asteroid inmore detail. Cool. Yeah, So
there you go, Space the FinalFrontier and we're right here in Texas doing
research on how to protect the restof the entire planet. Isn't that crazy?

(01:18:11):
Yeah? I like it. Thanksguys, welcome back to the show.
We're going to do our Patreon thankyou's do you have to show?
It's going to be beautiful. Youcan find us on Instagram at All Crime
No Cattle, on Twitter at ACNCpodcast, and our Facebook discussion group called

(01:18:33):
ACNC Posse Discussion Group. Yeah,and if you want to be a Patreon
member, you can find us atpatreon dot com slash All Crime No Cattle.
We have different tiers there, Andif you don't like the commercials that
you hear on the episode, youcan get commercial on ad free. Oh
can I mention something about commercials realquick? I mean, nobody's going to
probably hear this part of the show. But I just want to be clear

(01:18:55):
that it is election season right now. Oh yeah, and y'all, if
you hear a political adad on ourshow, it is not our intention.
We are not trying to support anyonepolitically on this show, but that's because
something has happened on the back endand somebody has inserted something that they should
not have. It happens all ofthe time, so please keep that in

(01:19:17):
mind, not just in our show, but when you listen to any podcasts
out there. It is hard tosometimes get people to stop putting political ads
in your episodes, so just youknow, keep that in mind. Yeah,
and we've also said before to ourplatform that we post our episodes on
that we don't want to be involvedin political ads, but they still sneak

(01:19:40):
through and happen from time to time. It's not something that Aaron and I
have control over or that we decideor that we actually want to be posted
on the show. That being said, let's give some shout outs to some
of our awesome patrons who are supportingthe show. Yay, and nobody's partisan
and any of this support. Thisis all just support for all crime,
no cattle, So thank you.So much. We've got Sarah Morgan,

(01:20:03):
Ashley Acosta, Victoria Beecham, dCampbell, Kat Zoltner, Heather Dixon,
Marianna Felio, Leanne Chance, jm and Amy Marish Gall. So these
are all of our newest Patreon supportersthat get their shout out, and that's

(01:20:23):
something you can get to if youwant to join up and become a Patron.
But we also have to shout outall of our amazing Texas Rangers who
produce every episode of the show,and those include Amanda Mattaford, Don Maloney,
e g Gaile Parker, Jamie Gray, Jennifer Magnolia, Jessica Layfield,

(01:20:43):
Lea Dhardy, Lynn Schance, MickeySweet, and Sarah Nicholson. Thank y'all
so much for being Texas Rangers andsupporting us, you know, just being
generally awesome. You're just great people. Yeah, Wow, you're so pretty
marish of shiny. Look that face. Look there's cheek bones. Wow,
the skincare that you must do,Oh my gosh, the eyes glitter breathtaking.

(01:21:12):
We just adore y'all. Thank youso much and we really appreciate it.
And yeah, we're going to beback here pretty soon I have to
travel again for work, but Ishouldn't be out that long. So next
week we will have another episode readyfor you, Part two and the conclusion
of this series, which will happento be the century mark for the show.
One hundred episodes. That's right.Did you ever believe when we started

(01:21:38):
the show we were going to doone hundred episodes about true crime in Texas?
Yep, me either. It's crazy. But maybe we'll do a little
more talk about that next time.Yeah, I think Aaron's ready to go
and get some food, and Ihave a Dallas Stars game to watch,
so I'm excited about that. Butuntil next time, y'all stay safe.

(01:22:00):
Always remember the crime is bigger inTexas, y'all. Audioce, goodbye,

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Ep 99: Revenge in Kaufman County, Part I

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