Murder at the Public Schools Gymnasium: Barry Leatherman’s Last Game | Case 7 Ep 1

This is the Signal 51 Chronicles Murder at the Public Schools Gymnasium. I'm John Henry. On the other side of this technology thing is Jake White, retired sergeant of the fourth Police Department. We come to you today from actually two undisclosed locations. Three, if you count our producer Ashley. She's out there somewhere. We don't know where, but she swears she's there. Anyway, Jake, what's the word? Well, I'm disappointed in your background, I will say. I was hoping that you would have awoken out of some drunken slumber in your bed, like, laptop up here. No. No. No. No. No. I I said I have nothing in I know. You you I know you've been on your better behavior after about after I diagnosed you with post nasal drip sore throat. Well, think I had the cicada COVID variant to be honest with But No. You you did not. Diagnosed myself. Today, we're gonna go back fifty years, but fifty five years, actually. But we're pinning this episode around an event a couple weeks ago, and that event was the death of Dave McGinnis, longtime NFL assistant, former head coach of the Cardinals, Arizona Cardinals, who died April 13 at age 74 after an illness the Tennessee Titans announced that day. McGinnis served as a Cardinals head coach from 2000 to 2003. After a stint as defensive coordinator, I believe. We know him because he went to TCU, Grew up in the West Texas town of Snyder or came to TCU to play football, and he was part of an or an unfortunate circumstance, a part of a series of unfortunate circumstances on 01/14/1970 when he was a student here at TCU. And at approximately 20 two hundred hours, Jake, I think that's 10:00. 10PM. Fort Worth police officers responded to a call at 1400 Foch Street. Did I get that right? Good pronunciation. Very good. And 1400 Foch Street in Fort Worth, Texas is the renowned and now iconic public schools gymnasium, which we call today Billingsley Fieldhouse. And the call was a signal 51 investigation. For more than seventy years, I think it's been about 70, I think 1953 that thing was built, This location is where Fort Worth public schools high schools played basketball games, probably volleyball too now. And it sits at the corner of Lancaster And University Drive right behind the historic Farrington Field, which God willing school officials will, save. Been up for sale, they say. Parts of it anyway. But when police arrived, they found the six foot two, two hundred twenty pound body of Barry Leatherman near the west exit of the gym. He was still breathing while onlookers tried to treat his wounds. An ambulance was summoned, and he was transported to the now defunct Saint Joseph's Hospital on South Main Street, probably about fifteen minutes fifteen, twenty minutes away. Barry Leatherman was a Fort Worth native. He was a standout linebacker, an all district performer in 1967 and '68 at Carter Riverside High School, where he graduated in 1969. His ability to play football grabbed the attention of college coaches, including TCU, his hometown university, where he received and accepted a scholarship to play for coach Fred Taylor. Leatherman was an expected starter, varsity starter for the nineteen seventy one Horned Frogs football team under new coach Jim Pittman. You know anything about Jim Pittman, Jake? I do not. Sure I'm up for a history lesson real quick. He's renowned for essentially dropping dead on the football field, And Waco gets Baylor in 1974, I think, or '2 or something like that. Never heard of this. No? No. This is the first time hearing of this. It was in pregame warm ups and he just dropped. Had a heart attack and died. Really? I think it was 1974. No. '19 yeah. I think '74. I haven't heard about that. That's interesting. Well, anyway, his first year there was 1971. Fort Worth was in those days, in the midst of integrating its high schools, in 1958, our man Clifford Davis, the famous Clifford Davis, filed suit to force Fort Worth to begin integrating a suit that was won in 1962, and that was the year the school district began integrating starting with the elementary grades. By the late 1960s under the direction of a judge's order to quicken the process of desegregation, four of high schools had begun to integrate. Some believe that there was a racial component to what happened that night of 01/14/1970. Others are quite certain there was a racial component to what happened that night. But it wasn't until the 1967 that black students could attend any public school in any public high school in Fort Worth. A Star Telegram headline blared thirteen years after The US Supreme Court ruled segregated schools illegal in Brown versus the Board of Education, Fort Worth schools achieved full integration. Five high schools that year, Heights, Carter Riverside, Northside, Pascal, and Polytechnic enrolled black students as the last step of an intentionally intentionally slow desegregation plan. Our man, Glenn Lewis, he's an attorney here and former state rep who is today the chairman of the board of Texas Wesleyan University, was quoted as saying, we'd never had white teachers before. He was then an eighth grader at Dunbar Junior High School, at that time still an entirely black school serving the Stop 6 neighborhood. He named off friends who chose to transfer to Polytechnic or what is now Triple Tech, which was integrated in 1964. He continued, we were kids. We didn't give it a whole lot of thought back then. The 1967 was also the first year fourth high school football teams played together in the same league. White and black schools have been segregated separated in segregated Texas sports leagues, the UIL, the all white UIL, and the PVIL, Prairie View Interscholastic League. Lewis continued, we were all trying to blend in and trying to figure to make thing how to make things work. In the black community, the feeling was, okay. Now you're getting to show the white community what you're like. Some white people never seen a black person up close before. The Riverside neighborhood, the neighborhood that Barry Leatherman grew up in, did not have a good reputation as one of tolerance. If you ask longtime Fort Worth people, they'll likely tell you that it was rednecky and racist. One notable incident in the nineteen fifties provides the tenor. Lloyd Austin, a Baptist preacher, moved his family into the white part of Riverside. At the time, white residents lived North of East 1st Street while black residents lived in the South. Austin, his wife, and one year old daughter moved moved on 09/01/1956, the first black family, to own a home on the previous previously all white neighborhood block. Austin wrote in an autobiography, I wasn't out trying to be a trailblazer, and I certainly was not part of some plot by the NAACP. And, no, I most definitely was not trying to be the Martin Luther King of Fort Worth. We had bought a house that we liked, could afford, just wanted to move into it, be left alone. The day the Austin family moved in, there were only hence, what was what was to happen. He told the Star Telegram in recent years. The day let's start that over. The day the Austin family moved in, there were only hints of what was to happen, he told the Star Telegram. One woman whom Austin described as an alcoholic stood in front of the newly purchased house shouting that the white people in the neighborhood should do something about this attempted integration. The next morning, a newspaper reporter knocked on the door and asked Austin if he knew that his neighbors were planning to burn his house down. Things got worse after that, he told the Star Telegram. The whole area was just packed with white folks, and as the hours passed, more of them came, he said. They called me a bunch of ugly names and had signs painted. They hung a dummy from a tree limb in my front yard with a knife in his chest and a red stain that ran down from the knife. Austin called the police, who ignored him. The crowd threw rocks at the house, breaking two front windows, according to newspaper reports. They created an effigy of Austin and hung it in a maple tree outside the house, according to his autobiography. Austin got a point two two caliber rifle and shot out the window, hitting a parked car. That is what prompted police to show up and disperse the crowd. The environment inside the public school's gymnasium that January evening was, to put it nicely, cheeky. Martin Flores, the starting guard on that Carter Riverside team recalls the atmosphere, and there is where we put in Martin Flores tape. One of the spots we put in the Martin Flores tape. In attendance with Leatherman that night watching Harvey Riverside play Como was his friend, his roommate, and fellow TCU football player, Dave McGinnis. After Carter Riverside's sixty five forty three victory, the crowd of almost 300 people descended upon the parking lot. As Leatherman and McGinnis were walking to their car, a fight broke out. McGinnis saw several people attacking Leatherman for reasons he said he did not know. McGinnis went to the aid of his friend but was stopped when one of the assailants threw a rock and struck him in the chin. McGinnis later believed it was a piece of rebar. Carter Riverside's high school principal told detectives, quote, We did everything we could. It couldn't have been ten seconds by my watch until we were breaking up the fight. Once it was broken up, three assailants fled and Leatherman was critically injured. At 10:35 p. M, Leatherman was pronounced deceased, dead from a single gunshot wound to the chest. A Tarrant County medical examiner investigator named T. R. Harris told reporters that Leatherman was shot at a close range in the chest. Said Harris, the blast knocked the lining off the inside of his Mackinac coat. And then we got more Carlos Flores or Martin Flores there. Yeah. We'll get that for you, Ashley. It's on the other recording. Barry Leatherman's stepfather, Clarence Cagle, said in later reports that his stepson had been threatened the year prior at a Riverside High School Como High School basketball game. During the incident, one year prior to his death, Leatherman was leaving the gym with several friends when they were taunted by four guys in another car. The driver of the car pulled a gun from the glove box, but the other three passengers pulled him back. Leatherman told his stepfather the occupants in the other car were excited about or incited by a play in the basketball game. Dave McGinnis, speaking to detectives in that January 1970 night, told detectives that he and Leatherman had just returned to TCU after the winter break. Trying to break the monotony before spring semester classes started, he went to the game with Leatherman. McGinnis said, quote, we were never that wrapped up in the game. I don't I don't even know what the team's names were. McGinnis and Leatherman left the public school gymnasium, McGinnis walking in front of Leatherman. McGinnis turned and saw Leatherman, quote, looking at three youths. McGinnis stated, they got to bury before I started. When you see a friend in trouble, you go to help them. Lon Goldstein, who is the assistant director of athletics for fourth public schools stated he, along with several other school officials, broke up the fight when they saw McGinnis struggling with someone. The next day, Como High School was abuzz about the shooting. Wilmer Bird, the principal for Como High School, called a meeting with the student council. It was during this meeting, a name emerged. Lewis Ivory's name came to the surface, and it was only Lewis Ivory's name. One source told us that during the game, Ivory had made some inappropriate comments to some female students from Carter Riverside. Leatherman stepped stepped presumably and told Ivery to knock it off. The confrontation continued, and when they went to the parking lot after the game, a fight ensued and Ivory shot Leatherman according to one witness. After the meeting, school officials and detectives transported Lewis Ivory to City Hall, where he was interviewed by detectives LV LaFills and VT Summers. Initially, Ivory told detectives he left the gym after the game and was walking to a friend's car. The friend was William Sylvester Clark. Ivory, who said he was not part of the fight, continued walking when two when two guys grabbed him thinking he was part of the brawl. Ivory told detectives he began, quote, scuffling and fumbling around when two of his friends pulled one of the attackers away from Ivory. Ivory tried to make a break for it and get to Clark's car. But before he could reach the car, Ivory saw two more men approaching. Ivory said he pulled the pistol, he had concealed on his person, and fired twice. Unsure if he hit anyone, Ivory said he fled. Ivory also told detectives he did not know Barry Leatherman and he was carrying the pistol because he was having problems with another person from the Como neighborhood. Fort Worth ISD, or Fort Worth Public School superintendent back then, Julius Trouleson, praised school officials for identifying ivory. So the next day, on 01/15/1970, Lewis Ivory was charged in the murder of Barry Leatherman. As police were looking into Ivory, they were also investigating William Sylvester Clark's role in the murder. Clark had a connection as it was his car that Ivory said he was trying to get to on the night of the murder. Almost two weeks after the fatal shooting of Barry Leatherman, a Tarrant County grand jury returned indictments for Ivory and Clark. However, the indictments were were returned however, the indictments were returned with a surprise. Ivory's murder charge was reduced to a misdemeanor for carrying a pistol. It was Clark who was charged with the murder. So what had happened? Ivory's story changed is what happened. Ivory recanted his confession and told detectives that it was Clark who fired the fatal shot. Ivory told detectives that he loaned the gun to Clark just before the game. To back his statement, Ivory took and passed a polygraph test. Ivory's father, Lewis Ivory Sr, told detectives, quote, the other youth threatened Ivory Junior along with his mother and sister. Ivory remained in jail because his father could not could not afford to pay attorney fees. Ivory was eventually released from jail after posting a thousand dollars on bond. Still on the lam though was William Sylvester Clark. After Ivory was released from custody, he had hoped to resume classes at Como High School. Students after all, students facing misdemeanor charges were typically allowed back to school and placed on probation through the school district. An assistant superintendent of secondary education would decide if Ivory was allowed back to school. Even though Ivory even though Ivory only had had pending misdemeanor charges, the school district did not admit him back until they could make a complete review of the case. Still on the run, some two weeks after being indicted, was Clark, though that would soon change. On 02/02/1970, Ford Police received a tip that at 04:30, Clark was seen in the car near the Ridgely Theater on Camp Bowie. A short time later and a short distance away fourth police officers RK Wilkinson and JJ Lee encountered Clark in the 5700 Block Of Blackmore Avenue. Why is JJ Lee noteworthy, Jake White? Because prior to 1975, fourth PD did not allow black officers to patrol white neighborhoods. Therefore, JJ Lee, a black officer, was patrolling his beat in the historically black neighborhood known as Como. As an aside to our story, JJ Lee was also no ordinary cop. In 1976, then officer Lee and officer Peter Mitchell, both black officers, took the detective exam to promote from patrol officer to detective. They both passed. However, in a strange and suspicious turn, the city council reorganized the department and eliminated two detective positions to make room for four new clerical positions. That suspicious reorganization effort did not go unnoticed by chief AJ Brown. By July 1976, chief Brown went back to the council and demanded two new detective positions. Chief Brown stated that the city's human relations commission cited the fact Lee and Mitchell were inadvertently discriminated against. The effort by Chief Brown paid off. Lee was first promoted and the first black detective in the fourth PD. Mitchell was promoted a short time later. Now an aside to this aside, Brown, Chief Brown, described as a reformist and outsider was said to be widely unpopular among among the rank and file, probably because, well, he was a reformist and outsider. You know all about that, don't you not, Jake White, about the reformers and the outsiders? So the reformer and outsider, I think anytime a new chief comes to a city, big or small, from the outside, they're not promoted from within. Mhmm. They're often called reformers. It seems to have a negative connotation. Right? Because, frankly, most people don't like change. So his his it's funny, you know, what almost exactly fifty years later, the same complaints still prevail. But, you know, sometimes that reformer mentality is not a bad thing, though. Right? I mean, you look near 30 miles to the east. Dallas PD, an example, they seem to be going through a lot of struggles in the late, you know, the 2010 to 2019, 2020 era when now Fort Worth PD chief had moved to Dallas from California or wherever he's from and turned that place around. Right? Really improved morale, made some changes that that seemed to be lasting. So like I said, I think it's it's ironic that the same complaints still exist, you know, fifty years later. I mean, as far as it being a bad thing. Yeah. Or maybe maybe it's not such a surprise. Mhmm. So the more things change, the more they stay the same. Yeah. Exactly. As they say. As they say. Wait. Wait. This is Chief Brown. He he winds up resigning in 1979 to become city manager of Hearst. I don't know if that's a promotion or not. Nothing against Hearst. It was sizably smaller. Especially in those days. Yeah. So just how much did Chief Brown's men and women on the force dislike him? According to a blurb in D Magazine, shortly before Brown announced his resignation, he arrived at work one morning to find a large pile of chicken manure on the carpet in front of his office door, put there by some of his men as a comment on his administration. Can you imagine such a thing, Jake White? What'd you say? Could you imagine such a thing? No. I mean, some of those shouldn't I mean, it'd be impossible to do that now or unlikely, but the sediment still remains oftentimes for those administrators, the rank and file, you know, and frankly, do they lose touch? Yes. Most of them do. So that frustrates the rank and file when shenanigans can can and do happen still. Well, said one of these cops, we we've decided to have a big party for the chief, but we've decided to have it after he's gone. Now, of course, this could have been much worse, this chicken manure episode. You you remember the the office episode where Michael Scott finds the unpleasant surprise on his office floor. Yes. Yes. He called it terrorism against the office. Yes. Maybe AJ Brown was like Michael Scott. Who knows? He might have been. I don't know. Okay. Well, back to our case. When Clark was confronted by police right around the Ridgely Theater down here, he provided a false name in hopes of throwing blue off of his trail. The officers, though, were not so simple. They knew better, and he eventually came clean and was taken into custody without incident. Do a little bit something a little bit different on our blogger today. Let's do sports crimes. Okay. Let's do it. My two of my favorite things merging. I got a text message this morning from, our friend Paul Jokus. Oh, okay. K. Canadian who played junior hockey. Yeah. And he says, this is hilarious. I said, what's that? It's the NHL record for most penalty minutes in a game. Would you would you would you care to take a guess at this? Most penalty minutes by one guy in a game. My hockey knowledge is at a bare minimum. I would have Where do go? Two minutes two minutes for high sticking, five minutes for fighting, know, stuff like that. Stripping. I mean, my gut my to me, ten minutes would seem like a lot, but, again, I'm speaking from zero knowledge of the sport up north and, I guess, down here now and everywhere. Well, you know, the Canadians haven't won a Stanley Cup in No. 1993, I think. It's the last time. I didn't know that. Yeah. That's a long, drought. Yeah. Long most of American teams are most of most I mean, all the teams are made up mostly predominantly of Canadians. Yeah. But a Canadian team Yeah. Hasn't won in thirty three years. Lose to me there too. But they have most I don't even know a lot of the like, they have the Las Vegas Golden Knights and all these like, I mean, I would have zero clue if I saw their jersey or sweater, whatever you call the hockey jersey. Yeah. Sweater. Yeah. I would have no clue who they were. Well, this guy played played for the Los Angeles Kings. K. The NHL record for most penalty minutes in a game is 67. K. Assessed to Randy Holt. K. Canadian. While playing for the Kings in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers on 03/11/1979. K. Holt received a two minute minor penalty followed by a twenty minute fighting penalty followed by a forty five minute fighting penalty for inciting a brawl. K. Seems like Sixty seven minutes. That's the kids do now. So my question was was that is that sixty seven minutes of power play? It it is not. It is not. Right. Those only go two or five minutes at a time. So all that meant is he had to sit out. He got a ten minute, I guess they call it major, and he just he has to sit out for ten minutes. There's a minor penalty like a like a a high sticking or something while that's happening, then someone else has to sit out two minutes for him. But he's out for ten minutes during the full ten minute period. Okay. So now you know the rest of the story. Yeah. That's all I have to say about that. Where's the crime? Well, that is crime. Penalties. Oh, god. Of course, you tied it into that. Of course. It's it's NHL crime. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, okay. I'm I'm with you now, and I can see him texting you that at about 09:30 this morning. Yeah. I think it was, in fact. I can actually hear him saying that to you in that deep Canadian accented voice back to me. He called me up later. He called me up later and, explained how how the penalty situation works. I think he was one to spend some time in the penalty box as well. Oh, yeah. In his younger days. Oh, yeah. He was a he was protector, is that what they call him? Defender, protector. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Well, let's, let's call this a day. Join us next week for the conclusion of the murder at the public schools gymnasium. This is a Stolen Water Media production.