Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
December
twenty-first, nineteen
ninety-five, Columbus, Georgia.
A routine bank pickup turns intochaos in seconds.
A Brinks guard, John Hamilton, aVietnam veteran, a husband, a
father, collapses to thepavement.
The shooter, he doesn't justfire once, he keeps firing.
And here's the kicker.
This wasn't some impulsivestick-up gone wrong, no.
(00:22):
This was a carefully plannedambush.
A trio of men had followed thetruck, stalked it, waited for
the exact moment to strike.
And the fallout, a deathsentence, years of courtroom
battles, and a community scarredby the brutal murder of a man
who already survived war.
This is the story of the Brinkstruck killing that rocked
(00:43):
Columbus, Georgia, and how greedleft blood on the pavement.
SPEAKER_02 (01:03):
Stories forgotten
dickens.
SPEAKER_00 (02:05):
I'm your host,
Bridget Denise, and here we peel
back the shadows of the South,where crime, mystery, and
chilling history linger longafter the headlines fade.
Each week, I'll take you deepinto stories that leave a mark.
Some are infamous, othersforgotten, but all of them
remind us how fragile the linereally is between ordinary life
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and absolute terror.
Today's case is one that turneda routine December morning in
Georgia into a gunfight, atragedy, and a years-long battle
in the courts.
This isn't just about a robbery.
It's about greed, violence, andthe murder of a man who had
already faced war, only to losehis life on the streets of
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Columbus.
Okay, so let's rewind.
Mid 90s Georgia.
Columbus wasn't exactly acrime-free bubble, but armored
trucks, they representedsomething solid, safe, reliable.
If you saw a Brinks truck rollup, you didn't think murder, you
thought money protected.
John Hamilton was part of thatimage.
He wasn't just some namelessguard.
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He was a US Army veteran.
A man who had put his life onthe line in Vietnam, then come
home and continued serving inhis own way.
Family man, hard worker, thekind of guy people trusted to
carry millions in cash down thestreet without flinching.
But here's the tragic irony.
After surviving a war zone,Hamilton's life ended not
(03:32):
overseas, but right here inGeorgia on a simple December
morning, all because a group ofmen decided they wanted the easy
way out.
Someone else's paycheck, someoneelse's blood on their hands.
And who were these men?
That's where the story reallysharpens.
Leon Tallette, the trigger man.
A man from Los Angeles, alreadya convicted felon, flown in
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specifically to pull thetrigger.
Xavier Womack, the supposedlookout.
Jake Robinson, the getawaydriver.
Three men, one plan.
And as we'll see, it was doomedfrom the start.
It's the morning of December21st, 1995, in Columbus,
Georgia, just a few days beforeChristmas.
(04:16):
The uptown streets are buzzingwith last-minute shoppers,
people cashing paychecks, folksrushing into South Trust Bank.
The Brinks truck pulls up righton schedule.
Inside, John Hamilton, theguard, carrying out his routine
pickup.
This is the part of the job thatseems almost boring if you do it
enough times.
Walk into the bank, grab thebag, haul it back to the truck.
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Safe, simple, no fuss.
But following close behind,three men with very different
plans.
Xavier Womack stays backwatching.
He's the lookout.
Jake Robinson is in position,ready to drive.
And then there's Leon Tollette,the man who came here for one
reason to pull the trigger.
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Now picture this.
John Hamilton is walking out ofthe bank, money bag in hand,
steps away from the safety ofthe armored truck.
But before he can get there,Tollette closes the distance.
He raises his gun, close enoughto see Hamilton's face, close
enough to make sure he doesn'tmiss.
Shots ring out.
Not one, not two, but several,tearing into Hamilton's head,
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back, and legs.
The street explodes into chaos.
People scream.
Shoppers die for cover.
And here's where it gets evenmessier, because this wasn't
some clean grab and run.
The other Brinks guards weren'tabout to just stand there.
Gunfire erupts as they chaseToilette, bullets flying across
uptown Columbus in broaddaylight.
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Can you imagine just trying toget some holiday shopping done?
And suddenly you're in themiddle of a shootout.
Tallette fires back, runningdesperate.
He even takes aim at respondingpolice officers.
But luck has a limit and hisruns out fast.
His clip empties, no morebullets, no more chance at
escape.
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Surrounded, Tallette drops hisweapon and surrenders, and just
like that, the robbery is over.
John Hamilton is dead.
The money never makes it out ofthe street.
And instead of getting away witha fortune, the suspects are
staring down a capital murdercase that will haunt Georgia
courts for decades.
The gunfire stops, but thesilence it leaves behind?
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That's louder than the shotsthemselves.
John Hamilton is lying on thepavement, bleeding out in front
of the Brinks truck he's guardedfor years.
Shoppers who had been runningtoward the bank just moments
before are now crouched behindcars, peeking out in horror.
Mothers clutch their kids,people whisper prayers, Hamilton
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never gets back up.
This man, who survived thejungles of Vietnam, who had
spent decades protecting bothhis country and his community,
was killed on a street inColumbus, Georgia in a matter of
seconds.
Police swarm the area, witnessespoint to where the shooter ran,
to the chaos of the chase.
Officers collect showcasings,bag evidence, take hurried
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statements, everyone agrees thiswasn't random.
It was planned.
Calculated, cold blooded, andhere's the thing that made this
case hit harder than mostrobberies.
The violence wasn't necessary.
If this had just been about themoney, John Hamilton didn't have
to die, but Leon Tallette madesure he did.
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Shots to the head, back, legs,overkill.
Prosecutors would later argue itwasn't just robbery, it was an
execution.
The news spread fast.
Local headlines ran with it thatsame day, armed robbery, Brinks
Guard killed for Columbus, acity proud of its military
history, home to Fort Benning, aplace where service was honored.
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The murder of a veteran likeHamilton felt personal.
It wasn't just a crime scene, itwas an insult to the community's
sense of safety and respect.
And for Hamilton's family,devastation.
His widow would later say hewent to Vietnam and survived.
And this happened becausesomebody was too lazy to work
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for a living.
Her words cut through the legallanguage, through all the
appeals and arguments.
This wasn't just a case number.
It was her husband, theirfather, a man who deserved to
come home that night.
Meanwhile, police had thesuspects in custody Wamack,
Robinson, and Tallette.
And while Tallette had literallybeen caught red-handed, the real
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storm was only beginning,because now the courts were
about to take center stage.
When this case hit the courts,it wasn't just about one man
pulling the trigger, it wasabout three men, each with the
role in John Hamilton's death.
And in Georgia, in the midnineties, there was no patience
for excuses.
Leon Tollette, the shooter firstup, the man everyone knew had
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fired the shots.
Leon Tollette, he didn't evenwait for a full trial.
On the very first day of juryselection, he pled guilty to
murder, armed robbery, weaponscharges, everything.
But pleading guilty didn't sparehim.
Georgia law required a jury todecide his punishment, so the
courtroom shifted into asentencing trial, and
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prosecutors wasted no time.
They painted him as anexecutioner, not a desperate
thief, but a man who fired shotafter shot into a guard just
doing his job.
They showed the autopsy reports,wounds to Hamilton's head, back,
and legs, overkill.
The defense tried to humanizehim.
They spoke of his childhood inLos Angeles, Watts, Gardena,
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neighborhoods riddled with gangsand violence.
They said he grew up with lowself esteem, untreated
depression, and little chance toescape the cycle.
But none of that erased theimage of a veteran bleeding out
on a Georgia sidewalk.
The jury found two aggravatingfactors.
The murder was committed duringa robbery, the murder was
(10:05):
committed for money.
Together, those were enough fordeath.
The jury sentenced Toilette todie by lethal injection, and
with that, Tollette's fate wassealed, or so it seemed.
In reality, his name would keepcircling through the courts for
decades, appeal after appeal.
Xavier Womack, the lookout thencame Xavier Womack, the man who
stood watch.
(10:25):
Unlike Tollette, Womack actuallyfaced a full trial.
Prosecutors wanted him tied tothe murder too, saying he knew
exactly what Tollette was goingto do.
But here's the thing, Womacknever pulled a trigger.
The jury wrestled with thatdistinction.
And in the end, they acquittedhim of the murder charges, but
don't think he walked awayclean.
(10:46):
He was convicted of armedrobbery, because let's be real,
he was part of the plan.
He was the eyes on the streetmaking sure everything lined up.
His sentence, prison time, butnot death.
Jake Robinson, the getawaydriver, and then there was Jake
Robinson, the alleged getawaydriver.
His trial was messy, juriescouldn't quite agree.
(11:07):
At one point he was acquitted ofmurder, but there was a hung
jury on other counts.
Prosecutors brought him back,and eventually he was convicted
of armed robbery.
Robinson was younger, more of afollower than a mastermind, but
legally it didn't matter.
He was part of the conspiracy.
That was enough to land himbehind bars.
(11:28):
The verdict for Columbus and sowhen the trials ended, the
picture looked like thisTollette, death penalty.
Womack, armed robberyconviction.
Robinson, armed robberyconviction.
But for Columbus, the sentencesweren't enough to erase the
loss.
A veteran was gone, a familytorn apart just before
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Christmas, and no matter howmany appeals wound through the
system, John Hamilton's name wasthe one that stuck.
The trials ended, but the storydidn't.
Not for the families, not forColumbus, and certainly not for
the courts.
Leon Tollette was sent to deathrow, but if you know anything
about capital punishment inAmerica, you know that's not the
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end.
It's the start of decades ofappeals, petitions, and
paperwork.
His defense argued ineffectivecounsel, that his background
hadn't been fully considered,that the jury didn't hear enough
about the depression, the chaosof his childhood in Los Angeles.
But one by one, every appealfailed.
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In 2005, the Georgia SupremeCourt upheld his conviction and
death sentence.
By 2021, even the U.S.
Supreme Court refused to takeanother look.
The death sentence stood.
Xavier Wamack and JakeithRobinson stayed locked up for
armed robbery.
Both avoided murder convictions,but in the eyes of the
community, their names wereforever tied to the death of
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John Hamilton.
And Hamilton?
His absence was permanent.
His widow never let the worldforget who he was.
In interviews, she said what somany were thinking, her husband
had survived war only to be cutdown by somebody too lazy to
work for a living.
Her words became the emotionalheadline that outlived the crime
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reports.
Theories?
Not many.
This wasn't an unsolved mysterywith shadows lurking.
This was greed, pure and simple.
Three men plotted for money andone man died for it.
But the lingering question isn'twho did it?
It's why.
Why did Tolette pull the triggeragain and again when all he had
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to do was grab the bag?
Was it adrenaline?
Rage?
Or was he always going to killno matter what?
For Columbus, Georgia, theBrinks truck murder left scars.
It shook a city proud of itsmilitary ties.
It reminded everyone that dangercan show up anywhere, even on a
sunny December morning, rightbefore Christmas.
(13:58):
And it proved once again thatwhen greed meets violence, no
one walks away untouched.
And that's the story of theBrinks Truck murder in Columbus,
Georgia, a case of greed,violence, and a community left
grieving just days beforeChristmas.
John Hamilton wasn't just aguard.
He was a veteran, a husband, afather, and his murder wasn't
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about revenge or passion, it wasabout money, cold, hard cash.
But what do you think?
Was Tallette always going topull the trigger, no matter
what?
Or could Hamilton have lived ifthings had gone differently that
day?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Share your theories with me onsocial media.
You can find me on Instagram,TikTok, and YouTube, all under
(14:44):
Vivid Nightmares Podcast.
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Thank you for listening.
I'm Bridget Denise, and this hasbeen Vivid Nightmares, where the
(15:05):
South's darkest crimes andmysteries live on in chilling
detail.
Until next time, stay safe andkeep the lights on.