The 1972 Bombing of a Small-Town Cop

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A police lieutenant turns the key, presses the brake, and his truck erupts. He lives. The case almost disappears. We set out to learn why a 1972 Springdale, Arkansas bombing barely made the paper and what the town didn’t (or wouldn’t) say out loud. Along the way we sketch the real backdrop: a rural region on the cusp of change, where Walmart and Tyson were still rising, Sundays went quiet, and a hard-edged meth trade simmered under the surface.

We walk through the device itself—DuPont gelatin dynamite, electric blasting caps, a likely brake-trigger—and how ATF and the FBI traced components that later surfaced in a routine DWI stop. The names matter here: a farmhand with easy access to explosives, a serially arrested dealer named Dennis Eugene Cortis who joked about “a bomby night,” and witnesses who remember him bragging at house parties the cops already knew about. The evidence lines up enough to raise eyebrows—brand continuity, relationships, and loose talk—but not enough to become a clean courtroom story.

That’s where small-town dynamics cut in. FOIA requests yield lab notes but not a complete record. A grand jury is rumored yet untraceable. Prosecutors may have done the math—stack drug manufacturing and theft for decades inside, or risk an attempted murder case with thin forensics and 1970s procedures. And then there’s the twist of family: Cortis’s mother slipping him tools to escape the county jail, sending him on a run that added more crimes in Oklahoma before the time finally stuck.

Read more or get your SWAG here: Paul G Newton's Blog — Paul G. Newton

What emerges is a candid portrait of how communities navigate scandal when the truth threatens comfort. It’s Arkansas true crime with all the texture: meth networks, ATF trails, missing records, and the stubborn persistence it takes to keep asking hard questions long after the headlines vanish. If stories like this keep you curious—where evidence ends and influence begins—hit play, subscribe for more deep dives, and leave a review to tell us what we should dig into next.

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Episode Transcript

Music (00:07):
I need to know eve rything who in the what in
the where I need everything.

Paul G (00:10):
So welcome again to our little world of George, I happen
to be a little bit of a I don'tknow, what do you what do you
want to call this?

Andrea (00:20):
We need to know everything.

Paul G (00:22):
Do we?

Andrea (00:22):
Yeah.

Paul G (00:24):
What if we don't get to know everything?

Andrea (00:27):
Uh, we can try.

Paul G (00:31):
My esteemed mistress.

Andrea (00:35):
I'm your wife now, thank you very much.
No.
You don't need one.

Paul G (00:40):
Uh one's enough.
I don't need more than one.
What?
Things I wanna know.
That's who we are, what we'redoing, and if you don't know
that, then now you do.
So there you go.
What's been going on, anything?
Last week we had a lot ofcraziness happening, if I

(01:03):
remember correctly.

Andrea (01:04):
Yes, kid stuff.
Yeah.

Paul G (01:06):
And the week before that we were just like, I don't care
anymore.
We were tired.

Andrea (01:11):
Yeah, we had a lot going on.

Paul G (01:13):
We did.

Andrea (01:14):
Yeah.

Paul G (01:15):
Did we?

Andrea (01:16):
Yeah, we always seem to.
It's called life, you know.

Paul G (01:19):
Eh.
Who knows about life?
Life isn't that important, isit?

Andrea (01:24):
You gotta work to eat.
Oh, there you go.

Paul G (01:27):
Sometimes I have to eat to work.
I really don't know what thatmeans.

Andrea (01:35):
Well, you've been putting a lot of work in with
this for you.

Paul G (01:39):
Yeah, I've been working on this.
I've been trying to get thesethings going pretty hard.
The uh the podcast, thepodcasts here.
And uh uh, you know, it's beeninteresting.

Andrea (01:51):
Well, the podcast gods answered you on this one, but
the rest of them they won't seemto want to help us, I guess.

Paul G (01:57):
The podcast gods?

Andrea (01:58):
Yeah.

Paul G (01:58):
Are they gods?
I just or are they just like,you know, elves?

Andrea (02:03):
Well, whoever does the FOIA requests, if you're not
very specific enough, they'lllike deny.

Paul G (02:07):
Oh, yeah.
Well, and the governmentshutdown hadn't helped any
either, because now I've beentrying to get a hold of um the
you know, the FBI and ATFreports for things, and there's
no way it's ever gonna happen.

Andrea (02:18):
Yeah, didn't they say that they like couldn't find any
record of this current onewe're gonna talk about?

Paul G (02:22):
Yeah.
They said they it might besomeone alive that they don't
want to offend.

Andrea (02:27):
I think in your counterclaim you proved that
they weren't.

Paul G (02:30):
I sent obituaries for just about everybody.

Andrea (02:32):
You did, didn't you?
I do remember that.
That's funny.

Paul G (02:35):
But and paste it and send it in.
You really don't have a leg tostand on people because here's
their obituary.
They are dead.

Andrea (02:41):
Newspapers.com.
We love you.

Paul G (02:44):
Yeah.
Well, what we don't love is theArkansas Democrat Daily or
Arkansas Democratic Gazettebecause they didn't digitize
anything from the 90s.

Andrea (02:53):
You have to have basically, you know, pay their
little monthly fee to haveaccess to the current newspaper
plus anything past.
It's like they're I get it,it's their work, but they're
holding on to it's like somestingy little kid.

Paul G (03:03):
So Well they, you know, they they don't even they they
send you out one paper a monthor a week on Sunday, and you
have to read it on an iPad.
And when my father was alive,he took him probably six months
to figure out how to use thatiPad.

Andrea (03:19):
Well, I mean uh technology for people that are
older is not their thing.
I mean, I I get it.
I'm kind of not I'm not thatold, but I still don't
completely embrace everything onthe iPhone.

Paul G (03:32):
You won't even use the iPad.
I'm like, I'm using the iPadconstantly.

Andrea (03:35):
My daughter confiscated my iPad, so I'm you could use
mine.
I just I don't think about it,honestly.

Paul G (03:42):
You don't want to.

Andrea (03:43):
I just don't think about it.
I mean I have a computer, butno, I might as well just give
that iPad to Emily because shelike uses it for a TV.

Paul G (03:50):
I got a TV she can borrow, but she won't do it
because she didn't like meanymore.

Andrea (03:55):
Well, I don't know what's between you two.
That's between you two, butit's not between me.

Paul G (03:58):
I didn't do nothing, man.
I'm just sitting around going,whatever.

Andrea (04:01):
All you guys out there that have teenagers, I think you
can relate.

Paul G (04:05):
I'm the evil, evil person in in there's always one
person that's evil in teenagerland.

Andrea (04:12):
That's probably so.

Paul G (04:13):
And I'm the evil one today.
I'm such a bad person.

Andrea (04:18):
I don't know.
They'll she'll get over it likethey always do.

Paul G (04:22):
Uh maybe.
And the really the problem, thething that you have to think
about is I really don't care.

Andrea (04:28):
Yeah, I know.

Paul G (04:30):
Nothing I can do about it.
I I really don't care.
She can be mad at me off.
She wants it's not my kid, sofine.
If you want to act like that,fine.
Well, I don't care.
It's not like I got a vestedinterest other than, you know,
your your mother.

Andrea (04:42):
Well, you know, if mom's not happy, nobody's happy,
isn't that the rule?

Paul G (04:46):
Well, sometimes.

Andrea (04:49):
You could spin that a lot of different ways, but we
won't do that on air.

Paul G (04:52):
Oh, but well, I mean, we could.
I mean, you just have to put anexplicit rating on the front.
No, we don't want to do whatwhat you brought it up.

Andrea (04:59):
So I can say we're not gonna tip or gore and put a
rating on it.
Tipper gore?
Yeah.
Tipper gore?
Isn't she the one you told me?
Yeah, there was.

Paul G (05:08):
You can go and watch a clip.
She was on Oprah, uh, arguingwith Izzy Pop, I think it was.
Uh, and he's like, What are youdoing?
And she's like, she's justtelling him, You're gonna make
our kids go crazy, and they'reall gonna worship the devil and
they're gonna go to hell.

Andrea (05:25):
They're gonna do that all on their own, so I'm not
worried about anything.

Paul G (05:28):
Don't need rock and roll for that.

Andrea (05:29):
No, it's called they have friends.

Paul G (05:31):
It's it's it's just called being a teenager.

Andrea (05:34):
Oh yeah.

Paul G (05:36):
But Tipper Gore, it's weird because it's Al Gore's
wife.

Andrea (05:39):
Yep.
Who knew?

Paul G (05:42):
The earth is going to Well, see, when when when the
rock and roll didn't turn theworld and into evil, see, and
Al, he went and said, you knowwhat?
We'll just make sure that theclimate change is going to kill
everyone.
Because if you remembercorrectly, the world world
should have ended 10 years ago.
According to the inconvenienttruth.

Andrea (06:03):
I do remember that, and I remember laughing, going,
Well, at least I'll be going toa better place than hearing you
complain.

Paul G (06:10):
But I mean, you know, uh, that's a whole other topic
on its own, but you know truth,you know, you can have consensus
and all this other garbage andall that stuff, and we're not
putting down anybody's theories.
No, no, no.
If you We're just like, come,let's let's just face this head
on.
They said we were all supposedto be underwater and the earth
was supposed to be too hot toinhabit 10 years ago.

Andrea (06:32):
Yeah, I do remember that.
But you know, one day at atime, if you're gonna obsess
over that stuff, then you're notliving your life right now to
the fullest.
And to me, that's the mostimportant thing you should be
doing within you know reason.

Paul G (06:42):
The earth will live on, and the cockroaches will soon
evolve into the new species thatflies into space.

Andrea (06:50):
I hope not because I hate cockroaches.
Those things.
Those things give me the key.

Paul G (06:55):
At least a million years for the cockroaches to learn
how to drive a stick shift.

Andrea (06:58):
I mean, uh no, I can't go there.
He knows how much I hatecockroaches because those things
just make my skin crawl, andI'm like the lady out there with
like the thousand cans of raidgoing after them because I can't
stand them.

Paul G (07:12):
Oh, you would you probably hated that movie Joe's
Apartment.

Andrea (07:15):
I couldn't I couldn't watch it.
I could not, guys.

Paul G (07:17):
I guess friends with the company.

Andrea (07:20):
I couldn't, I got like 25 minutes into it, and I'm
like, I can't do this.
I can't.
I don't like those things.
I can handle bears, I canhandle, you know, any type of
marine life.
I mean, I can just I cannothandle a cockroach.

Paul G (07:35):
So I was gonna do this nice little read like we've been
doing.

Andrea (07:38):
Oh yeah.

Paul G (07:39):
But I don't know if it's appropriate now.
It's kind of weird now thetransition and just out of our
banter into the the read.
What do you think?
We're trying to figure out thisthis the formatting that works
best here.
Because people really just liketo listen to us bicker.

Andrea (07:53):
And some people fast forward when we bicker, so I
guess you know you can't playthat.
Who said that?
Nobody, but I'm just guessing.
Some people out there are like,I just want to get to what you
want to tell me about.
Zip, zip, zip.
Go on 30 seconds.
We don't care.
Yeah.
But um other people like tohear us and they laugh because
they can relate to us becausethere's somebody out there that
hates cockroaches, and there'ssome guy out there that's mad at
his teenagers, so we'rerelatable.

Paul G (08:12):
That's probably true.
That's not my teenager.

Andrea (08:15):
Well, it's mine.

Paul G (08:16):
Yeah.
So I guess.

Andrea (08:18):
Well, she graduated high school soon, so please.

Paul G (08:23):
Colleges, if you're listening, accept her and give
her a full ride in a dorm.

Andrea (08:28):
Make my life easier.
She's gonna listen to this andbe like, Mom, why are you so
mean to me?
She's gonna say that I'mtalking about her without her
permission.

Paul G (08:39):
And what planet does she think she lives on?

Andrea (08:44):
I haven't said her name, so nobody knows who she is.

Paul G (08:47):
It doesn't matter.

Andrea (08:48):
Yeah, it doesn't matter.

Paul G (08:49):
What planet does she think she's living on?

Andrea (08:51):
I don't know, her own.
I don't know.

Paul G (08:52):
Yeah, yeah.
Because if if we couldn't, ifwe had to ask permission to talk
about somebody, no one couldever talk about anything.

Andrea (09:00):
Yeah, that's true.

Paul G (09:01):
So I don't think that really matters.

Andrea (09:04):
Yeah, I don't when we were kids, none of that was a
thing.
You didn't ask permission, youdid you just did it.
And if you didn't like it, youjust kind of like ducked your
head down in the class hallwayand run around and afraid, you
know.
You didn't like go.

Paul G (09:17):
The teacher throws stuff at you.

Andrea (09:18):
You didn't give me permission, you have to take it
down.
We didn't have to deal with anyof that.
You know, if a bad face was inthe yearbook, oh well, move on.

Paul G (09:25):
I mean I tried to make a face in the yearbook.

Andrea (09:30):
Didn't you try to join clubs or something in your I
just wanted to join.

Paul G (09:33):
I joined golf because there's a really hot chick that
was playing golf.

Andrea (09:37):
I do remember you telling me that, yeah.

Paul G (09:39):
She was and then she quit and I was like, damn, now
I'm in golf.
What am I gonna do for the restof the semester?

Andrea (09:46):
I don't know.
Hope for more pretty girls.
I don't know.

Paul G (09:49):
Oh, I was a bunch of dudes.

Andrea (09:50):
Oh well, I wanna tell you.

Paul G (09:52):
I just like, can I not come up and you just like
transfer me to another class,please?

Andrea (09:56):
They were all probably in the same class with the same
idea you had.

Paul G (09:59):
Yeah.
No, no, see, I had fourknowledge because I lived by the
country club.
Oh, so I knew who was gonnajoin.

Andrea (10:06):
Oh, okay.

Paul G (10:07):
So I was like, hmm.
She had money, she went toFayetteville, but she had the
same, but they did golf classtogether.

Andrea (10:14):
Oh, okay.

Paul G (10:15):
Yeah.
So I was like, yeah, she didn'tknow who I am.
I can get away with stuff.

Andrea (10:19):
Okay.
Glad you, you know, told me thisa little bit before we got
married.

Paul G (10:24):
I told you everything before we got married, and you
said, stop telling me stuff.

Andrea (10:28):
There is some stuff I just don't want to know.
Even though there's things Iwant to know.
There's certain things ladiesshould know.

Paul G (10:33):
Things she doesn't want to know.

Andrea (10:34):
You don't want to know that you're some stuff your
husband did in the past.
I'd just rather not.

Paul G (10:38):
Especially a disreputable woman like me.

Andrea (10:41):
What?
Disreputable.
I don't want to know any ofthose.
All right.

Paul G (10:46):
But when we were growing up though.
So I was born early 70s, youwere born late 70s.

Andrea (10:53):
77.
Yeah, I guess that's late 70s.

Paul G (10:55):
Yeah.
And when we there was littlebitty towns then.

Andrea (11:01):
Yeah, it really was.
I I just distinctly remember asa kid between Rogers and
Bentonville, the road 102, thesepeople who have no idea like
about Arkansas.
Just picture like two towns inthe distance, and in between the
two these two towns is a bunchof farmland.
That's what I remember.

Paul G (11:19):
Between Springdale and Fayeville was a few hills and a
giant junkyard.
Two giant junkyards.

Andrea (11:26):
I remember the interstate being nothing but
cowfields in the n early 90s.

Paul G (11:32):
Yeah, now if going from Springdale to Rogers.
Yeah.

Andrea (11:37):
Yeah.

Paul G (11:38):
Yeah, that was it.
Springdale to Rogers, and youhad Lowell, which is a little
and then we had actually had inthe 70s, there was actually a um
uh go-kart track outside ofSpringdale.
I don't remember in the BentonCounty.

Andrea (11:50):
I don't remember that.

Paul G (11:50):
Yeah, it didn't last very long, and Roger got to go
on it, and I was too little,they wouldn't let me go on it.
So I got to watch, and thenlike the next year it went out
gone.

Andrea (12:00):
Because Roger, my brother Roger's nine years older
than me, so no, I don't I justremember like all the farmland
we used to have, and now thatfarm well we need to eat some we
need beef somehow, somebody'sgonna grow it.

Paul G (12:13):
Where's the beef?

Andrea (12:14):
Yeah, where's the beef?
I do.
It was out there in the fields.
I do remember that little scommercial from the 80s.

Paul G (12:19):
So I it's just a small farm towns, just but you know,
Tyson's and Walmart.
Walmart hadn't even gotten big.
It was still I think it wasjust barely Walmart by 72.
Right before I was born.
Yeah, I I They might have hadjust one Walmart store.

Andrea (12:39):
I didn't really realize how big Walmart was until I
lived in Michigan.

Paul G (12:47):
Yeah.

Andrea (12:48):
And you know, for college, and I thought Walmart
was everywhere.
No, Walmart's not.

Paul G (12:52):
They weren't.
They are now.

Andrea (12:54):
Yeah, and then even in in Texas.

Paul G (12:55):
Vermont has a Walmart now.
They they were held out foryears.

Andrea (12:59):
Yeah, I mean, I guess it didn't really hit me.
When you grow up here, likeit's Walmart, you have a
Walmart, you have a corporateoffice, you don't really realize
that it's Walmart and Sam'sClub is everywhere here.

Paul G (13:09):
There's no Costco here because Sam's Club owns the
place.

Andrea (13:12):
Yeah, you don't really realize how big something is
until you see it.
Like, I guess you can getstock.
I do remember stock, and Ididn't you're a kid, you don't
know what makes someone be inthe stock exchange.

Paul G (13:21):
And it was just a little bitty town.
We were just, you know, it wasalmost, almost May um Mayberry.
Almost Mayberry.

Andrea (13:30):
Uh it was bigger than that, but I mean I don't know if
I'd say Mayberry, because Ithink of like smaller towns when
we were driving through to goto Florida and then Arkansas, to
me, that's Mayberry.

Paul G (13:42):
Well, I'm just saying for the listener who doesn't,
it's not maybe not familiar.

Andrea (13:45):
Uh yeah, it's I guess in those days when I was in
elementary school, there was acouple elementary schools, two
middle schools, and one highschool.
And it was one high schooluntil I graduated a little bit
after that.
It stopped.

Paul G (13:59):
Same, same.
But the reason I bring all thisup is though to kind of set the
scene.
You know, Tyson's wasn't thismajor conglomerate, big giant
Tyson's.
They were still just a smallchicken processor.

Andrea (14:11):
Yeah.

Paul G (14:12):
And, you know, Georgia's had some eggs.
Now those two companies are thewas two of the Tyson's,
obviously the largest in theworld as far as protein is
concerned.
But we were just a little bittytown, right?
Everything rolled up at 6 a.m.
uh 6 p.m.
Nobody went out of their houseon it except to go to church on
Sunday.
Nothing was open.

Andrea (14:33):
I do remember nothing being open on Sundays vaguely.
And I remember as I got olderthat changed.

Paul G (14:38):
But so this is 1972.

Andrea (14:41):
Yeah, before I was born.

Paul G (14:42):
What I didn't know, what I learned from researching this
case is that in 1972 there wasa huge methamphetamine problem
in northwest Arkansas.
Monster.

Andrea (14:52):
Bigger than the we have now?

Paul G (14:53):
Yeah.

Andrea (14:54):
Really?

Paul G (14:54):
Yeah.
That's what's that's that'skind of where I've come out of
this.
It's like, oh my gosh, I didnot know it was that large.

Andrea (15:00):
I mean, I pictured the 70s, I hate to say this off the
70s show when it's sitting asmirks circle in their all
smoking pot, and uh everybodytalks about dope and all that
other stuff.

Paul G (15:07):
That's what you had bennies and all this other stuff
that you're able to get a holdof back then.
Now none of those things arelegal and they're very hard, you
can't, they they don't makethem anymore.

Andrea (15:16):
Well, they just came up with other things.

Paul G (15:18):
Well, now they hate the only thing they really can make,
because bennies orbenzodiazepines, right?
Yeah, they they don't makethose pharmaceutically anymore.
There's no reason, there's nocall for them to be made in the
but back then they were being uhprescribed to housewives and
all sorts of good stuff.

Andrea (15:37):
Valium, benzodiazepines, Atavan, all that stuff was
highly prescribed.

Paul G (15:42):
I don't know if Atavan was out yet.

Andrea (15:44):
I know, but symptoms similar to Atavan.

Paul G (15:46):
Yeah.
But uh propofol was probablystill around.
I don't know.

Andrea (15:48):
I don't think propofol came around until later.
I don't know, I have to look itup.
That's what I know.

Paul G (15:52):
Morphine was out for sure.

Andrea (15:53):
Morphine's been around since the Civil War.

Paul G (15:55):
Yeah, yeah.
So, I mean, what these peoplewere doing, there was an
underclass in Northwest Arkansasthat they made their own crank
and then and they sold wheat andthey grew their own weed.
A lot of the weed back thencame from these rural areas like
uh what we call Booger County,which is what Madison County?

(16:17):
Madison County.
Well, no, it's what the localscalled it back then.
They called it Booger County.

Andrea (16:21):
Oh, okay.

Paul G (16:22):
Yeah.
Dad still called it BoogerCounty until he was dead.

Andrea (16:25):
Really?
Yeah.
Not to make fun of that, a lotof those counties, but if you
own property, like I own used toown property, and I remember
Carroll County.
And uh my kids would make ajoke about how I can have my own
moon moonshine still and I canmake my own pot.
And I'm looking at them and I'mlike, you don't need to be
knowing that's a thing.

Paul G (16:42):
Well, it you you would you think you're alone until you
till the banjos play, and thenyou're like, mm, they're still
there.

Andrea (16:49):
That bad.

Paul G (16:51):
Some guy yelling squeal out in them.
I don't know.
It was just disconcerting.

Andrea (16:55):
No, that didn't happen.
We had pigs in around the area,but we didn't hear like that.

Paul G (17:00):
So this is 1972, and I guess a couple of the cops and
uh uh Lieutenant Carl Martins ofthe Springdale Police
Department, right?
He he I guess he roughed up acouple of people that were
making, you know, he's afterthem.

Andrea (17:17):
Right.
Yeah, this is an update from aprevious episode.

Paul G (17:19):
Yeah, so what this is all the information that I
found.
He is uh, you know, he'sroughing him up.
You're gonna put him in jail.
Don't want him around becauseyou know, this is Bible-built
country, and everybody's kind ofstuck up with Baptist out
there.

Andrea (17:31):
It's still kind of Bible-built country.
That's not really changed much.

Paul G (17:33):
Not a whole lot.
Well, it's changed a lotcompared to back then.
I mean, if you were gay backthen, you probably got
disappeared.

Andrea (17:39):
Well, if you were gay up until the early 2000s, it was
highly, highly not acceptable.

Paul G (17:44):
Yeah.
Remember this middle of BurtReynolds and all this other
stuff, too, you know?

Andrea (17:47):
The 70s, yeah.

Paul G (17:48):
It's like, oh, I'm a man, how about you?
I got my mustache and chesthair.
Yeah, I got my chest hair.

Andrea (17:53):
I just remember that.

Paul G (17:54):
Everybody likes my chest hair.

Andrea (17:56):
Pictures from the 70s when the guys got their shirt
all veg on when they'rechanging.
Looks like a bear.

Paul G (18:01):
Yeah.

Andrea (18:04):
We know what Paul doesn't like.

Paul G (18:06):
No.
I if you grow chest hair, I'mleaving.
I'm just saying right now.

Andrea (18:10):
If I grow chest hair, let's put me as a sideshow
freak.
We can make some money.

Paul G (18:14):
Put a sign out in the front yard.
Come see the hairy woman.
No, I would never do that.
Mrs.
Sasquatch lives here.

Andrea (18:22):
Make some extra money.

Paul G (18:26):
I just open the window.
We can close it.
Another dollar, please.

Andrea (18:30):
Oh my god.
There'd be some more on doingthat.
Probably.

Paul G (18:35):
So I guess he was messing with these guys who are
growing growing weed and sellingweed and making meth and
selling meth.

Andrea (18:41):
And I'm sure that disrupted their business, and
people probably got arrested forit and put in jail.

Paul G (18:46):
And so one, you know, so Martins gets off his shift,
right?
It's 1147.
Right?
And he gets into his truck.
Now, what I found out was hedidn't have a decent truck.
He had a truck where the doordidn't shut.
This is how little they'repaying cops back then.
He couldn't even buy a regularcar.
He had an old junk truck.

Andrea (19:08):
How did he keep the door it didn't open or he wouldn't
shut?

Paul G (19:11):
It wouldn't shut.

Andrea (19:12):
So how's he you how you can't just drive down the road
and it flies open?
All I picture is what is it?
He probably had a string orsomething.

Paul G (19:20):
Oh shoot.
Believe it or not.
So yeah, he probably just putit together with a rope.
Closed it.
Oh my gosh.
So he gets in his truck.
Poor thing.
And he starts it and it blowsup.
It explodes.
But it doesn't kill him.
Yeah, do you remember that?
It doesn't kill him.
Which is interesting.
When you figure out, when youfind out what they use to blow

(19:40):
him up, you'll be surprised thathe's not dead.

Andrea (19:44):
What did you say?
It was a bunch of powder caps?

Paul G (19:47):
No, no, no, no, no.
So they blew him up, right?
And then the case makes thenewspaper four times.

Andrea (19:56):
I remember when we talked about that last time,
four times.
Only four times.
And this little area, I wouldthink that that would be all
over the front page for weeks.

Paul G (20:03):
Yeah, you would think people would be killing
themselves to figure out whatthe hell somebody bombed this
policeman for.
What did he do?
Was it a jilted lover?
Was it drugs?
Was it the biker gangs?
Because at the time Hell'sAngels are really big.

Andrea (20:18):
And I remember we talked about this.
I was thinking it was like anex-girlfriend.
You're the one that called itand nailed it, though.

Paul G (20:24):
Yeah.
I figured that's what it was.
Some idiot.

Andrea (20:28):
That's usually how it starts.

Paul G (20:31):
Yeah, you know it does.
Uh sadly, unfortunately.

Andrea (20:36):
But I mean, here's my thought process.
You're a guy, you're mad.
He's messing with your drugs.
So you're gonna build a bomb.
You can't Google this.
How do you what do you go tothe library?
How to build a bomb?
I mean, what do you do?
Well, I wouldn't know the firstthing to do.

Paul G (20:50):
So what they did, so immediately the ATF is called.

Andrea (20:54):
I didn't know we had ATF back then.

Paul G (20:56):
Yeah, ATF and FBI are called in immediately.

Andrea (20:59):
I thought ATF was like a Clinton thing that he started,
to be honest.

Paul G (21:03):
No, that was already around.
I think uh I think ATF mighthave been Nixon.
I'd have to go look it up.
Nixon started a lot of thiscrap.
Alcohol, tobacco, firearms.
Um so they come in, right, andthey're they're they're
interviewing all the cops andlooking around and gathering up
suspects, and what they hadfound is that uh somebody had

(21:27):
used dynamite.
Dynamite.
A stick of dynamite to blow himup.

Andrea (21:32):
He's lucky to be alive.
Yeah.

Paul G (21:35):
But see, while we're going off as references from the
A-Team, yeah, you know, in indifferent TV shows.
A stick of dynamite, boom.
Do they really blow up the wasone stick really blow that blow
up that big?
I don't know.
I've never actually seen it inlife.
Really?

Andrea (21:50):
I haven't either.
It's not like we can go buydynamite and use in the back
porch to figure this out becausewe get arrested.

Paul G (21:55):
Well, in dynamite, you like a firecracker.
If you take it take a piece ofdynamite and put it out there on
the on the pavement and set itoff, boom, you're gonna have a
hole.

Andrea (22:03):
Yeah.

Paul G (22:03):
Right.
But if you stick it in a rockwith a little hole that's just
big enough for the dynamite,what's gonna happen?
The whole side of that mountainour hill's gonna be blown off.

Andrea (22:14):
Yeah, that makes sense because the amount of energy.

Paul G (22:17):
Yeah, it's all con it's all compacted right there.
So more than likely, becausethese are a couple of
crackheads, don't know what thehell they're doing, what we
found out.
They're it just blew up.
And probably most of the forcewent down and out.

Andrea (22:32):
But how did they how'd they light it, for lack of a
better term?
It's not like excuse me,officer.

Paul G (22:38):
No, that's not, it's not in here.
I don't know, I don't know.
So the Spritting Springdale PDcalled in the uh forensics
assist from the ATF.
When they did, they found outit was a DuPont special gelatin
dynamite with the electricblasting caps.
Oh, that's a six-volt batteryuh ignition.

Andrea (22:56):
So probably something about maybe when he sat in the
seat that triggered something,maybe.

Paul G (23:01):
If it was in the seat.
Well, he put he put his foot onthe brake.

Andrea (23:04):
Oh, that too, correct.
Something had to charge it.

Paul G (23:07):
See, he said that he said in the in the in the
interview that when he put hisfoot on the brake, it sent it
off.

Andrea (23:13):
Wow.

Paul G (23:13):
And I imagine the fact that he can remember that.
He was pretty severely injured,though.
He's off for a while.
That's really he'd be as apolice, but he came back and he
he became kept himself as apolice officer for until he
retired.

Andrea (23:26):
I mean, that's good that it didn't keep make him
disabled to the point he can'twork.

Paul G (23:30):
Yeah, but the thing is it made the newspaper four
times.
He never got any more never anymore talking points about it.
And because it was 72, youcan't go back to the TV stations
and pick up the old tapes.

Andrea (23:43):
They're gone.
Yeah, they're probably gone.

Paul G (23:45):
Because we dug deep into newspapers and you know, you
called lots of people and so Icalled my I called my buddy who
who's a retired, used to be runbasically, not the chief of
police.
He used to run the uh SpringdoPolice Department for a very
long time.

Andrea (24:02):
Okay.

Paul G (24:02):
As like the highest guy underneath the the the high
people.
You know, he's the way he wouldbe like the uh master sergeant,
for example.

Andrea (24:15):
Master sergeant, really.
Wow.

Paul G (24:17):
If you were military.
So he runs, you know, themaster sergeant tells everybody
what to do.
And then then the secondlieutenant comes by and tells
him to do something, and he goestells him to piss off because
I'm I outrank you even thoughI'm enlisted.
That's actually the way itworks.
Anyhow, um, so they had to comeall the way in from Seattle,

(24:37):
the ATF.
Why Seattle sounds like it'swhere they were.
Oh, okay.
Uh they had one uh then the FBIcame out of Kansas City, and
then they had to ship all thestuff that they gathered to s uh
to the laboratory in Seattle.

Andrea (24:54):
We didn't have our own FBI in Arkansas at that time.

Paul G (24:57):
No, no.

Andrea (24:58):
I guess the 70s we didn't have flyover country,
man.
Oh yeah.

Paul G (25:02):
We probably were first off, they're looking for the
unibomber and whatnot.
Not they're not yet, but youknow what I mean?

Andrea (25:08):
Yeah, yeah.
I'm just thinking like Ibecause we have our own now,
don't we, in Little Rock?
No, I think it has to go tolike Atlanta or really I'm
thinking we had our own officefor some reason.

Paul G (25:19):
Well, Fable has what I found is Fayable has an office
for the FBI, but there's no onethere.
Okay, that sounds like it's aan office where they come in
from Little Rock if they need tocome up here and they can go in
there and use it.

Andrea (25:31):
I feel like that's a waste of government funds.

Paul G (25:34):
It's a federal building, so they've already paid for it.
I mean, what's the difference?
I'm just I'm just saying.
Right.
Right.
Uh here's the thing.
They never return the evidence.
We never asked for it back.

Andrea (25:47):
Why would we not W wouldn't we ask for it back?

Paul G (25:50):
No, they didn't.

Andrea (25:51):
Why would we not?

Paul G (25:53):
I have no idea.
It's just it here's the thingabout FOIA.
They uh they redact some of it.

Andrea (25:58):
Well, yeah, yeah, they have to.

Paul G (26:00):
And but m it never said what it said is that they sent
it off, but there was never afiled request in the paperwork
at the Springdale PD to get theinformation back to give to the
prosecutors.

Andrea (26:15):
That sounds like to me they're just like, we're doing
our due diligence, but we reallydon't care.

Paul G (26:19):
Yeah, isn't that weird?

Andrea (26:21):
I mean there has to be a reason why they don't care.

Paul G (26:23):
So now a little while later, after this bombing, uh
Rogers police officer uh pulledover uh Fran Philip Francis S.
Eslinger for a DWI.
And you have to be super drunkin the 70s to get pulled over

(26:44):
for a DWI.
Because it's my father drovelike that all the time, and they
were just like, eh, just gohome.
It'd be okay.

Andrea (26:51):
That's so scary if you think about it.

Paul G (26:53):
It's not just like it is now, man.

Andrea (26:55):
No, you like weave in a little bit the which they
should.
I mean, these people's lives,you know, they should they
should do that in case you knowsomeone is like, I'm just gonna
fall asleep and you can go overcenter line and kill somebody.

Paul G (27:05):
Yeah.
So get this.
When they when they pulled himover, they searched his car.
Back then you could search yourcar, you didn't have to have
probable cause as much becauseit hadn't been set forth yet.
Because we just net we just gotuh have to read your rights in
72.
Hey, wouldn't it have been 68wouldn't it?

Andrea (27:24):
Whenever that I was thinking we got that sooner than
that.
Maybe not.

Paul G (27:28):
No.
So they just now got the factthat they have to read the
rights, and now we've got thisguy drunk driving, and he's
searching his car because theycould back then, and it was fair
game.
And they found in PhilipFrancis Ess Esslinger.
Eslinger?
It's hard to say.
Uh two DuPont gelatin sticks,caps wiring, batteries, and

(27:51):
tape.
The exact same ones that was inMartin's car.

Andrea (27:56):
I take it Springdale and Fable didn't talk to each other
about it.
No, it was Rogers.
Rogers, excuse me.

Paul G (28:00):
Rogers and they they got it.

Andrea (28:02):
They got it, okay.

Paul G (28:03):
Yeah, Evans logged and was logged and given to the ATF.
When they found this, they gaveit to the ATF.
Right?
Because in the FOIA I found theagents' names.
Uh the lab notes later show thebrand continuity of fragments
from the bombing.

Andrea (28:20):
Oh, okay.

Paul G (28:21):
So they got the notes back, but they didn't get the
the actual uh chemical testback.

Andrea (28:27):
Okay.

Paul G (28:28):
Maybe they didn't think they needed it.

Andrea (28:30):
I mean, if it's the same okay, I mean i i i it to me it
can be maybe circumstantial atbest.
Okay, it's a little bit ironicthat he's driving around town
with the same thing that blew upa police officer, but at the
same time, unless it's the samecomponent, yeah.
You could probably argue thatit's just you know, a
coincidence.

Paul G (28:48):
So the police r are running this down, right?
And they they have this onedude, Billy Mac Miles.
Mac Miles Mac Miles.
Two words.
Billy Mac Miles or Billy MacMiles.
I don't know.
Who cares?
It doesn't matter.
I'm gonna put their mugshots upon the website.

Andrea (29:07):
Oh, that'd be like their mugshots.
Oh, that's interesting.

Paul G (29:10):
Yeah, it's pretty actually pretty cool.
And they look like, yeah, thoseguys probably did that.
So he says that uh this onedude, Dennis Eugene Cortes, who
was hurt uh who was my buddy'smain suspect from the PD.

(29:30):
Yeah, he's like, I believe hedid it.
Uh but this guy, Dennis EugeneCortes, came by this dude's
house uh days after the blastand joked to him when I asked
him about the bombing.
Because you know, thislieutenant had been busting the
chops of Billy Mac and EugeneCortes, right?

(29:51):
Dennis Cortis.
For like days, months.
Because he's after him, hewanted really quit.
Cortis jokes.
The air was a little bommy thatnight.
Oh gosh.

Andrea (30:05):
Yeah.

Paul G (30:06):
Yeah, he said that to this dude.
So this Dennis Cortis guy, he'sbeen arrested so many times.
It's ridiculous.
Over and over and over again.

Andrea (30:18):
Was it drugs?

Paul G (30:20):
Yeah, always drugs and stealing.
Drugs and stealing.

Andrea (30:23):
How come he didn't serve any jail time?

Paul G (30:25):
Well he he did a little.
He did a little.
Um but they also another here'sthe thing.
There's two other guys, EdmundFord and Jay Frederick.
I don't know if they're dead oralive.
They could still be here andcome knocking on our door after
hearing this.
Hey, how's it going, Jay?
I ain't answering the door.
He'd be in a walker.
Anyway, I could outrun him.

(30:49):
Um they both said, yeah, Cortiscame bragging about he knew
about the cop car getting bombedup and blown out.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so basically he was runningaround telling everybody, you
know, hey, I did this, I didthat.
Ha ha ha ha huh.

Andrea (31:10):
No, that's usually what they do.
That's how they get caught.
They can't keep their mouthshut.
They want to brag about it.
They want some accolades fordoing something like that.

Paul G (31:19):
So he what he was doing, he was just he thought he was
some kind of big bop boss.
Running methamphetamine.
What happens when you use toomuch methamphetamine, by the
way?

Andrea (31:29):
You're pretty much your brain becomes just molten mush.

Paul G (31:34):
You get very angry though.

Andrea (31:36):
Yeah, you do get very angry.
Paranoid.
Paranoid.
Some of them are coming offmeth, have this really sense of
strength.
Yeah.
You know.

Paul G (31:45):
Like that guy with the gun at the hospital?

Andrea (31:47):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Paul G (31:48):
That was cool.
Not really.
Too bad.
You could shoot you should havegot the uh the uh the camera
out of the from that, thesecurity cameras from that.
That'd be cool.
You show it to all your, youknow, prospective suitors.

Andrea (32:01):
No.

Paul G (32:01):
Here's what happens if you fuck with me.

Andrea (32:05):
I wouldn't have gotten married again.
That's a gaze.

Paul G (32:07):
No, I'd loved it.
What are you talking about?
That's like one of the thisthere's two incidents in your
life that I went, that soundsreally cool.

Andrea (32:16):
So this poor guy, not poor guy, but this guy's going
around town going, I blew up acop, I blew up a cop, and
nothing was done.

Paul G (32:24):
They didn't Well, they they they popped him on a bunch
of other stuff.
It took him a minute.
But uh Philip Esslinger, right,he worked on a farm, so that's
why he had the dynamite.
So he didn't go to jail for thedynamite, right?

Andrea (32:39):
Oh, that's pulling strings there, a touch.

Paul G (32:41):
Yeah.
But that's the only reason hedidn't have to go to jail for
the dynamite.
Nowadays, you just go to jail.
You have to have a license andfederal license and all this
stuff.
Back then, you could just buydynamite.

Andrea (32:52):
But do you really need a dynamite for a farm?

Paul G (32:55):
Yes.
Stumps.
That's how they got rid ofstumps.

Andrea (32:58):
Okay, all right.

Paul G (32:59):
You get a bunch of rocks or something like that, then
yeah, you need it.
I mean, it's you know, whathere's the sick part about this
Esslinger guy, though.
He claimed he was using it tofish.

Andrea (33:11):
Oh, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of.
What's he gonna do?

Paul G (33:14):
He was using the blasting caps and and dynamite
to blow up fish and collect thefish.

Andrea (33:20):
So the fish are gonna die because the bomb went off
and you're just gonna go.
The pressure from the bomb.
You're just gonna scoop them upwith a net.

Paul G (33:26):
Exactly.
My my grandfather did that acouple times.

Andrea (33:29):
Oh, that's a thing, really.

Paul G (33:30):
No, it's a thing.
It's abstract.

Andrea (33:32):
Okay, because to me, I'm thinking like, dude, you're
just trying to find some excusethat doesn't sound very good.

Paul G (33:38):
No, no, they the the the pressure in the water, because
water doesn't compress, right?

Andrea (33:42):
Yeah.

Paul G (33:42):
So the pressure in the water knocks the fish out and
they they pass out and theyfloat to the top.

Andrea (33:47):
To me, that seems like a cheating way of fishing, but
it's very illegal and you cannotdo that.

Paul G (33:51):
It's like spotlighting a deer.
You you take a bright light andshove it in a deer's face,
they're not gonna go anywhere,you can shoot them.

Andrea (33:58):
That's cruel.

Paul G (33:59):
Yeah, well that's what my grandfather used to do with
rabbits.

Andrea (34:03):
I guess it works.

Paul G (34:05):
Hey man, those back then people were hungry.
Yeah you know, my grandfathergrew up, he had a dust bowl and
all that good stuff he had todeal with.
So anyway, so this DennisCortis guy and uh this uh uh
Philip Essinger.
S.
Eslinger, right?
They're friends.

(34:25):
And he talked Philip intomaking the bomb for him.
The weird part is it's in thecase file.
They've got the evidence, theycan link everybody together,
yeah, but they never filed acase on them.

Andrea (34:38):
Okay, I guess if you think about it, to my my head,
they're all linked, butcircumstantial at best, if you
think about it.
You can brag about it.

Paul G (34:49):
Well, the ATF did say that the dynamite found
Esslinger's car is the samebatch as the dynamite blown up
that blew up the lieutenant.

Andrea (35:00):
Yeah, I guess that's the only thing you really probably
would have.
But I can see a um a defenseattorney twisting that.
Well, sure.
That's their job, and they haveto do it well.
You have to counterclaimeverything, and I think in this
one you might be able to atouch.

Paul G (35:14):
So what I think what we kind of gathered out of this
looking at the um evidence inthe FOIA is that kind of the
city civic pressure kind ofpushed it out of the they wanted
it to go away.
It's an assumption, but itfeels like that, and the people

(35:35):
of the time were able, you know,that was things that were able
to do back then.
Now nobody'd stand for it, we'dall be mad.

Andrea (35:43):
I um I guess it makes sense why it only made the paper
four times.
Yeah, you probably just want itover with, done with, and maybe
there's something else thatthis guy they can charge him
with that'll keep him longerthan a bombing of a cop.
I don't know what the chargeswere.
How things worked in the 70s asfar as like laws, I'm sure
we've evolved since then.
But yeah, maybe if he got uhwe'll say, like, for instance,

(36:05):
he goes to trial for the bombingum and gets, you know, not
guilty, then what are you gonnado?

Paul G (36:11):
You can't, yeah.
You you I mean the prosecutor'sgotta be able to prove it and
and and maybe there's just notenough to prove.
Here's the wild thing though.
The what's really wild aboutthis thing is that Dennis Eugene
Cortis, right?
This guy through the 70s and90s, they could have arrested
him then.
Really?
They could have arrested himthen.

Andrea (36:31):
But I think if they arrested him in the 90s, they
still have to give him the sameamount of charges and time in
jail as if it happened in the70s.

Paul G (36:37):
Well, no, no, yeah, this is true.
I mean, they could havearrested him in like 74, 75.
There was a grand jury heldabout this, and then we can't
get grand jury.
The the the the WashingtonCounty is where it was held, and
they said they don't have anyrecord of it, didn't exist.
Well, it could be grand juries,though, are usually secret.

Andrea (36:54):
Well, yeah, I remember reading the paper, it was it was
not just that, but it waspotential police misconduct on
top of it, and that was one ofthe things on top of other
things that the grand jury waslooking at.

Paul G (37:05):
It's true.
I mean, we don't know.
Those guys could have back thenyou could interrogate somebody
and beat them up.
Yeah, they couldn't that was nthat was allowed in this in 72.
Especially in Arkansas.

Andrea (37:18):
Who knows?
Maybe the mayor or whoever waslike, nope, nope, find something
else to get this guy on.

Paul G (37:23):
Usually the prosecutor, but yeah.

Andrea (37:25):
Prosecutor, yeah.

Paul G (37:26):
So they've arrested him multiple, multiple times between
the 70s and 1990s.

Andrea (37:31):
Obviously, rehab didn't uh rehabilitation in the jail
does not work for this person.

Paul G (37:35):
No.
So he's in he he is for he'sgoing to jail, right?
31 months uh or 51 months torun consecutive to a long state
sentence of 31 turning into a31-year prison sentence for this
Dennis Cortis.

Andrea (37:53):
What did he do for that?
All the drug sketchup on it?

Paul G (37:56):
Yeah, all the methamphetamine manufacturing.

Andrea (37:58):
Well, I think that would be a better sentence than what
he might have gotten for thebombing.

Paul G (38:01):
Yeah, the attempted murder given five years.

Andrea (38:03):
But it makes sense why they didn't pursue it.

Paul G (38:05):
Yeah.
Especially in 72, you didn'treally get huge sentences back
then.

Andrea (38:09):
Yeah, they've changed a lot since then the laws, yeah.

Paul G (38:12):
So he was basically he was facing 31 years in c in in
in custody.
In here's the wild part aboutthis guy.
This is why I'm still going.
Oh my gosh, this guy'sabsolutely insane.
Helen Wilkins, Cortis's mother.

Andrea (38:27):
Oh no.

Paul G (38:28):
Right?
Um, she helped him by slippinghim um items to escape the
Washington County jail where hewas serving most of his time.

Andrea (38:43):
Okay, did they not have metal detectors or something
that you walk through for that?
No.

Paul G (38:48):
I mean it's the Washington County jail.
I mean, there's it was 200,000people living in the area.

Andrea (38:53):
Well, was she slipping it in food or pie or purse?
What?
I mean I don't I don't know.
And up her butt?
I mean, I don't know.

Paul G (38:59):
Well, she might have been.

Andrea (39:00):
I mean, I'm not trying to recruit here, but I mean like
you don't know.

Paul G (39:03):
There's a couple extra pockets there, I suppose.

Andrea (39:05):
I mean Okay, I would like to think that contraband
was a thing in the 70s, evenmore so than now.

Paul G (39:13):
Well, it was the 90s.

Andrea (39:14):
You need to check, check, check.

Paul G (39:17):
Yeah, there wasn't.
See, back then, in the late 90sis when I was a skip tracer,
which is also known as a bountyhunter.

Andrea (39:26):
Oh, yeah, I do remember you telling me some stories
about this.

Paul G (39:28):
And I was working for a bail bondsman and the bail
bondsman said, you know, you'resupposed to have such and such
long-term term time to be a bailbondsman in Arkansas.
I'm just gonna say you do.
And I said, Okay.
Sounds good.
Sounds fishy, but okay.
He's paying me, what do I care?

Andrea (39:45):
Yeah.

Paul G (39:46):
I said, All right, I'll do it.
And I went and busted aboutfour people about four people.
And it was the most stressfultime.
I didn't want to do it, man.
My eye was twitching the entiretime.

Andrea (39:59):
I guess because you're trying to catch these people,
and they're they're probablywe've seen cops.
It was fun though.
They like have them hiddenunder a mattress or hidden in
the room.

Paul G (40:07):
I went up on top, I had to I've got this one guy on top
of a church.
I showed it to you the otherday.

Andrea (40:10):
Yeah.

Paul G (40:11):
We're downtown Rogers, right across the street from the
Rogers police station.
And I went up on the roof andsaid, Boy, you can come down
here with me, and you got awarrant for you.
He goes, What?
I said, You want to have towalk to the police station.
And we walked him in there.
I have my I have a cowboy haton, my boots.
I had a big old Lariat with me.

(40:32):
I was like, Yeah, here we come.

Andrea (40:34):
Oh, that really just screams like 70s 90s Arkansas
right now.
I know, it's fun.

Paul G (40:41):
So But the Sheriff's Department in Washington County.
So if I could do that, I meannobody's paying attention to
anything, right?
Because I was a I wasn't even21.
And I was running after skiptracers.

Andrea (40:56):
So how did she how did he get out of jail?

Paul G (40:58):
I don't know, but just the sheriff's department in
Fayetteville was right off thesquare.

Andrea (41:02):
Okay.

Paul G (41:03):
And the jail, when you drove by, whenever they let the
prisoners out for their daytime,yeah, in the yard, it was right
by the highway.

Andrea (41:11):
Oh, geez, that's not thinking at all.
You could walk go by and waveat the prisoners, hey, how's it
going?

Paul G (41:16):
You know, as you drove by.

Andrea (41:17):
Who thought of this?
This I don't know.

Paul G (41:18):
That's the way it was.

Andrea (41:20):
So I'm just picturing this like old lady like snip
shoveling in or in a pie orwhatever purse, these like nail
files.
I don't know.
And then, like, you know, whatare you gonna do?
Get these nail files, and wheneveryone's like, what, having
music time like they did atAlcatraz?
Sawing down the bars?
I mean, what?

Paul G (41:38):
So I he got out and he ran.
He ran to Oklahoma where hecommitted more crimes.
Oh, that's lovely.
Yeah, see this one.
So when he's done with hisArkansas sentence, he's gonna
serve time in Oklahoma.

Andrea (41:50):
Well, there's goes the rest of your adulthood.

Paul G (41:53):
Yeah, this guy is nuts.
He's a real jerk and a realass.
He's an ass hat.
He's an ass hat with noscruples at all.

Andrea (42:03):
What happened in the bomb?
I hope at least she got sometime for she ended in abetted.

Paul G (42:07):
She didn't get any time for the she got I it does I
can't find any record of hergoing to jail.
Well But it was all over theit's all over everything.
Um the man, my man from thepolice department goes, he's
he's telling me all about howshe helped him break out of
jail, out of the WashingtonCounty jail.
And I can't FOIA that becausethey won't talk to me about it.

Andrea (42:25):
Oh, it makes sense.
But I mean, I know mothers loveher children, but I'm sorry if
my kid did something stupid,he's in jail.
Like, you're gonna sit thereand get your sentence.
I'm not slipping you anythingto get out.

Paul G (42:35):
Wow, and so this guy is absolutely insane.
He thought, his whole thing washe thought he was Al Pacino,
right?
In South Miami.
Say hello to my little friend.

Andrea (42:46):
In 90s, Arkansas?

Paul G (42:48):
In 70s, Arkansas.
70s, Arkansas.
That's who we thought he was.

Andrea (42:51):
Oh lord.

Paul G (42:52):
He's watching too many gangsta movies, man.

Andrea (42:54):
There was no gangsters here.
There was cowboys and chickenfarmers.
Chicken farmers.

Paul G (42:59):
I mean, yeah, that's all it was.
I mean in 72, we we just got anew hotel called the Holiday Inn
that no one's seen before.

Andrea (43:09):
Seriously.

Paul G (43:09):
It's been open like a year.

Andrea (43:12):
Really?
I didn't know that.

Paul G (43:13):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It was my gosh, we're must beBrussel and we have a holiday
inn.

Andrea (43:20):
And this guy's thinking he's like gangsta city.

Paul G (43:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And the chicken coop was rightdown the street.
Uh, and they had all thesehouse parties.
How they found that all thesepeople that knew he that told
him he did it was that they hadall these house parties, and the
cops knew who was who washolding these house parties and
went and held them up.

Andrea (43:41):
Well, I mean, if you're gonna get information, I guess
that's the only way you can.

Paul G (43:44):
Yeah, yeah.
And they were having all kindsof house parties, and the house
parties were pop parties.
You know, it was drugs, it waswhere you go and party have
drugs.
Right?
And the cops knew about it, butthey couldn't do anything about
it for some reason.
And I don't know, I don't knowwhy that he just didn't bust
them.

Andrea (43:58):
So the one cop that decides he wants to do something
about it gets blown up.

Paul G (44:01):
Yep, gets blown up because this guy thinks he's Al
Pacino, South Miami.
He thinks he's that guy.
Or he thinks he's he thinkshe's he's he's what's his face
with the marbles in his mouth inthe godfather movies.

Andrea (44:14):
Oh, the yeah, oh the head godfather guy, yeah.

Paul G (44:18):
That's what meth does to you, I think.

Andrea (44:22):
I mean, he definitely doesn't, you know.

Paul G (44:24):
It's an absolutely crazy story because it's like, what
is this guy thinking?
How why they let him get awaywith that for 20 years is what I
don't understand.

Andrea (44:33):
It kind of makes sense if you think about it, just
talking off the cusp here.
70s was like the big, I don'tknow.
I was born in 77.
I'm just talking here.
Uh it was the I picture it thedrug decade.
And in the 80s, you get Reaganin the office and it says, you
know, say no to drugs.

Paul G (44:49):
Just say no.

Andrea (44:51):
I mean, think about it.
We needed that.
If nobody was gonna drinkdrugs, no, not drugs.
But if you think about it, weneed we needed that to stop
because I mean nobody was doinganything.

Paul G (45:02):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And really, everything pointsto Cortis as well, too.
When they they looked overeverything.
So I guess it was it wasprobably him.

Andrea (45:15):
Probably was him.
He was mad that this cop'sbusting him and his friends.

Paul G (45:19):
He thought his manhood was bigger than everybody else's
in town.

Andrea (45:23):
Well, his mommy bailed him out of jail somehow.

Paul G (45:25):
She didn't bail him out of it, you broke him out of
jail.

Andrea (45:27):
Well, broke him out, but you know, I mean that poor
woman.
She honestly probably thoughther baby was like could do
nothing wrong.

Paul G (45:35):
Or she knew exactly what was going on.
She's like, you need to get outof there now because you're now
I can't make the rent.

Andrea (45:41):
That's true.
That's a good point.

Paul G (45:42):
Sell some drugs.

Andrea (45:43):
I mean, people do do that to make ends meet.

Paul G (45:46):
It's not the right thing to do, but yeah, so this is the
most interesting case I've everbeen across because it's a
small town, Arkansas, and herewe have a mob style bombing.

Andrea (45:56):
Yeah.

Paul G (45:57):
But it wasn't.
It turns out it was just somestupid goofballs thinking that
they were hot stuff.

Andrea (46:03):
The village idiot.

Paul G (46:04):
Yeah, the village idiot, basically.
That's exactly what it was.
Don't do that.
And if anybody's alive that wasinvolved in that and hears
this, man, I'm sorry, but thatwas stupid.
And that's my opinion.
So you can't sue me for forliable, because I'm not liable
to agree with you that you'renot stupid.

Andrea (46:22):
Well, and that's my opinion.
So that's just tell us theother side of the coin.

Paul G (46:25):
Yeah, come by and talk to us.
No, no, just call it in.
We'll just we'll just call itin.
I don't want you coming to thehouse.
I mean no offense.

Andrea (46:32):
Yeah, we we don't we don't need that.
My kid would lose her mind.
I would lose my mind.
I would have annoyed that.

Paul G (46:40):
Well, I mean, it'd be 90.

Andrea (46:42):
I don't think they could do anything to us at 90, but
guns are the great equalizer.
I mean, I do know that peoplelike do things in order to
afford food on the table, but Idon't get that impression from
this guy.

Paul G (46:53):
Yeah, yeah.
I think he was just partyingand wanted to be in control.

Andrea (46:56):
Maybe he was the hot cheese of getting your meth
around the area.
Probably was.
I mean, I don't know.
Just speculation.
Because I mean, none of theother people that were getting
busted went after the cop.
Just this guy did that we canprove that we think have some
evidence on.

Paul G (47:10):
And the other guys didn't really care.

Andrea (47:11):
So they're probably like, okay, I'll just go to the
next town or I'll do it, I won'tget caught.

Paul G (47:15):
So that's the crazy, crazy case of Dennis Cortis
blowing up cops for no freakingreason other than he's just an
idiot in high-on meth.
Village idiot, yeah.
Who knew though?
Little town, Arkansas has likewhen I first read it, I thought
it was big deal, but it wasn't.
It was just an idiot.

Andrea (47:35):
And then we asked my mom about it, and she said she kind
of doesn't even remember iteither.

Paul G (47:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Andrea (47:40):
Yeah.

Paul G (47:42):
Anyway.

Andrea (47:42):
Anyway, yeah.

Paul G (47:43):
So that's that's it for that one, I guess.

Andrea (47:46):
Yep.

Paul G (47:47):
I had to know though.
I had to know about that casebecause it was crazy.

Andrea (47:51):
Things we want to know.
Things I want to know.

Paul G (47:53):
I want to know, damn it.

Andrea (47:54):
Which is why we played the I call it the the funny
Curious George song.

Paul G (47:58):
Curious George?

Andrea (47:58):
It makes me laugh.
I don't know why.
But he's talking about weirdstuff.
I don't know, but it just makesme laugh.
The beginning part of it atleast.

Paul G (48:06):
Really?

Andrea (48:07):
Yeah, I don't know why.
I think it's funny.

Paul G (48:09):
That one?

Andrea (48:10):
Yes, this guy.
I need to know everything.
He needs to know everything.

Paul G (48:14):
Yeah, need everything.
I wanted to know everythinguntil I found out a bunch of
stuff, and I'm like, man, I wishthat couldn't have not known
that.

Andrea (48:24):
He needs to know everything.

Paul G (48:25):
He needs to know everything.
Alright, so if you guys enjoyedthe episode, go to the website.
W W W?
Is it W or W?

Andrea (48:39):
I don't know.
W.

Paul G (48:41):
W.
W.
If there was two of you, Idon't know what I'd do.
At least the house could getcleaner.

Andrea (48:47):
Hey.

Paul G (48:49):
You know, it wouldn't it be all on you?

Andrea (48:51):
Oh, that's true.

Paul G (48:52):
It'd be on you and you.

Andrea (48:53):
Yeah, no, I don't want a twin.

Paul G (48:55):
I mow the yard.

Andrea (48:56):
You do a good job with that.

Paul G (48:57):
Not really.

Andrea (48:58):
It looks good.

Paul G (48:59):
I just I pretend to mow the yard.

Andrea (49:00):
It looks good.
Hey, you put Christmas lightson the house.

Paul G (49:02):
I did put Christmas lights in the house.

Andrea (49:04):
And it looks nice.

Paul G (49:05):
Way too early.

Andrea (49:06):
Hey, it was a warm day yesterday.
Now i yesterday was what 72 andtoday it's like 42?

Paul G (49:11):
Yeah.

Andrea (49:11):
Welcome to Arkansas.

Paul G (49:13):
I need to know everything.
Should have the countryversion.
I need to know everything.
No?
No.

Andrea (49:20):
Okay.

Paul G (49:22):
W W W.
Debbie.

Andrea (49:26):
Paul G Newton at Paulg Newton.com.
No, Paul Gnewton.com.
Okay.

Paul G (49:30):
It's if you want to email me Paul G at
Paulgnewton.com and I will readall comments from all comers.

Andrea (49:40):
Yes, positive or negative.

Paul G (49:41):
Eventually.

Andrea (49:43):
We do read them.

Paul G (49:44):
Yeah.
That's true.

Andrea (49:46):
And we have swag there too.

Paul G (49:48):
Some haunted t-shirts.
Not really haunted.
They're just weird.

Andrea (49:51):
Yeah, they're pretty funny.

Paul G (49:53):
I've been putting some good ones up there.

Andrea (49:55):
You have been.
They look really good.

Paul G (49:56):
And then you can get like a hat and stuff like that.
Or you can just send us money.
Either way.

Andrea (50:01):
T-shirt.
I think you have a hoodie.
What is it?
The something space wars orsomething?

Paul G (50:06):
Remembering the remember the galactic wars of 2175.

Andrea (50:11):
It's a bunch of cats fighting.
It's pretty funny, actually.

Paul G (50:13):
Well, cats fighting squids.

Andrea (50:14):
Yeah.

Paul G (50:15):
Squids and spaceships.

Andrea (50:16):
That feels like our house at night with our cats.

Paul G (50:18):
We don't have squids.

Andrea (50:20):
Well, we have one cat, we call it squidbird, so.

Paul G (50:22):
Well, he's weird.
Anyhow.
So I guess that's it.
Yep.

Andrea (50:29):
That's it.

Paul G (50:29):
All right.
If you need to if you want toknow anything, want to ask
anything, or if you have a caseyou want us to look into,
because we're actually gettinginto it pretty hard right now.

Andrea (50:37):
Yeah, we are.
I'm working on one later.

Paul G (50:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just email at Paul G at PaulGnewton.com.
Or don't, I guess.
But visit the website and sharethis podcast.
Give us a bazillion stars.
If you give us one star, that'dbe okay too, I guess.
I don't know.
What did the guys say?
Comment.
It doesn't matter if you say inthe com in the in the in the in

(51:01):
the like, share.

Andrea (51:03):
Yeah.

Paul G (51:04):
Give us a comment.
In ratings, yeah.
Ratings.
You can rate us as terrible.
Just give us five stars and sayterrible, terrible, terrible.
And it'll still be fine.

Andrea (51:11):
Yeah.

Paul G (51:13):
I guess.

Andrea (51:14):
We're good.
Right.
We'd love it.
We love doing this.
Bye.
Bye.