Changed Stories, Dismissed Charges: How William Clark Escaped Justice | Barry Leatherman Case 2

This is the signal 51 chronicles Murderer at the Public Schools Gymnasium. I'm John Henry, reporter and editor at fourth magazine and fourth Inc. On the other side of this contraption here is Jake White, retired sergeant of the Fort Worth Police Department. We come to you from two undisclosed locations in Fort Worth, Texas. Actually, three undisclosed locations because our producer, Ashley, is somewhere out there. We don't know where. It's a mystery. Jake, should we try to play Where's Waldo with Ashley? We would it would never work. We wouldn't have a chance. Well well concealed. Ashley's ill and today since little under the weather. Yep. So we wish her a quick recovery and get back on her feet. So last time we saw you guys, we were telling you about the shooting death of Barry Leatherman, a TCU football player, a freshman TCU football player, who along with his good buddy Dave McGinnis, born and raised in Snyder, himself also a freshman TCU football player, who had returned early from Christmas break to go watch a high school basketball game at the public school's gymnasium, which we today call Billingsley Fieldhouse, which is behind Framington Field on the corner of Lancaster And University Drive. Leatherman was a graduate of Carter Riverside High School, and his alma mater was playing Como High School in a high school varsity basketball game the night of 01/14/1970. Something happened during that game. It's unclear what it was a pretty high intensity environment, and there was likely it likely included some racially charged, shall we say, sentiment or comments involving the all white Carter Riverside and the all black segregated school Como. And it was during this time in 1970, late nineteen sixties, early nineteen seventies, that Fort Worth was desegregating its schools and integrating, under orders from a federal judge, spanning from the landmark Brown versus Board of Education ruling in 1954 that separate schools were were inherently unequal. So whatever happened inside that inside the gym, a fight broke out outside the gym involving several people. And during that fight, Barry Leatherman was shot once, a blast, still ferocious according to newspaper reports that it knocked the lining off the inside of his Mackinac coat coat. A student at Como High School was arrested the next day, a gentleman by the name of Lewis Ivory Junior, who said he had a pistol on him because he needed it for protection. However, a day later or so, he was merely charged with a misdemeanor of carrying a weapon. Carrying the pistol, and it was a gentleman by the name of William Sylvester Clark who had been charged with the murder. Ivory said he had been with Clark that evening and that he had loaned a pistol to Clark. Clark skipped town. However, police got a tip on the evening of February 2 that Clark was seen at near nearby the Ridgeley Theater, and they apprehended him that day on the charge of murdering Barry Leatherman. Okay. Jake, take us forward. Alright. So talking about William Clark. So where was Clark in the three weeks since Barry Leatherman's death? Well, Clark was in Fort Sill, Lawton, Oklahoma as a member of the United States Army. Clark was there reportedly recovering from recovering from wounds he suffered in Vietnam. What brought Clark back to Fort Worth is a topic of uncertainty. Regardless, he was here. He was arrested. He was charged with murder. In jail, Clark sat awaiting trial. Finally, September 1970 was here. The state, the defense, the families were all ready for trial. A changing story was a prevalent theme in this case as we've discussed. Been a lot of twists and turns in this. Like you mentioned, if you remember, Ivory first confessed to shooting Barry Leatherman, but he changed his mind, changed his story. Now in early September, just as the trial was about to start, a setback occurred. Unlike most setbacks being initiated by the defense, this setback was initiated by the prosecution. Prior to the trial, assistant district attorney Wayne Roberts told judge Gordon Gray what changed. No longer are the witnesses sticking to the story they originally told police and their sworn statements after the murder of Barry Leatherman. Because of this, ADA Roberts was asking for the trial to be postponed. Roberts further stated in his motion that quote, the defendant directly or indirectly adjourned or brought about perjury. In an earlier motion, Judge Gray allowed Clark's court appointed attorney, Charles Baldwin, access to the state's witnesses. Baldwin stated, quote, he and members of the staff interviewed state witnesses, but they did not influence the witness statements because they did not know what was in their sworn statements to begin with. And another strange twist, if you will, judge judge Gray granted the delay, but Baldwin objected. Baldwin told the court that Clark asked for and should get a speedy trial. Ultimately, the motion to postpone was granted. So in summary, the state wanted to pause the trial, have a delay, the defense was ready to go. On this day, the motion to postpone was not the only issue. Judge Gray made one other ruling. The second ruling, Clark was not permitted to wear his US army uniform in trial. Now how did this become an issue? The day prior, Clark showed up for jury selection wearing his US army uniform decorated with combat medals. The state quickly objected on the grounds it was a ploy to elicit sympathy. The defense argued it was not for sympathy. It was to avoid misconception or the misconception that Clark was a deserter. A deserter is how police described him. However, Baldwin contended that Clark was not a deserter because he was at Fort Still when the warrant was issued. Finally, you may remember Clark was arrested in February 1970. Here it is September 1970, and Clark was still in jail. The question was posed, could he not afford his bond? No. That wasn't the case, and it did not have to do with the bond amount. It had more to do with the fact that he was being held without bond. On the same day of these motions, judge Gray more or less withdrew that and imposed a $3,000 bond. One would think that that would be a logical step to post bond, but he did not. Why not? Clark's attorney feared that if he posted bond, he would be apprehended by US Army officials. So in jail, Clark remains. Eight days later, 09/16/1970, another surprise. The surprise, the murder and rape charges against Clark were dismissed. The rape charges are not something that we've discussed, but they were charges that stemmed from a case in 1966. Clark was indicted, but because of a lack of evidence, a warrant was never written. The case laid dormant until the death of Barry Leatherman. Ultimately, the state told the court they did not have sufficient evidence to prosecute Clark because the witnesses changed their stories. However, Clark was still not a free man. He remained in custody. The charge, desertion. So Clark, a relatively free man, I suppose, in terms of criminal charges in the state of Texas, now had no regards no worries in regard to his possible role in the death of Leatherman. However, there were three other men tied to this case that could not be so sure. Clarence Earl Earl Russell, Warren Kaczynski, and Gary Bertram Jones. The grand jury returned false swearing indictments against these three after they changed their stories. Ultimately, the shift was significant enough to where the DA's office did not believe they could successfully prosecute the case. So this thing takes a lot of a lot of twists and turns. I mean, again, now we're introducing this this sexual assault charge from 1966. We don't have the details on that. But in short, nothing was done until Leatherman was killed. So that case was dormant. Who knows who the victim was? Who knows what the circumstances behind that were? But once Clark's in custody for the murder of Leatherman, now they wanna come back and bring bring upon those sexual assault charges. So, I mean, like I said, this whole thing just takes a a ton of different twist to it. I mean, you know, we started with Ivory confessing. Now Ivory recanted his confession. We're on to Clark. You you got people testifying against him. Now they're recanting their stories. The state wants to delay. The defense is ready to go. I mean, you know, there's a whole lot of like I said, there's a lot of twists in this one, and I think we're gonna get into Well, and and Clark and Clark certainly has some questionable questionable character. Right? He's got, this rape thing. He's got this murder charge. Mhmm. Which only which didn't stick only because witnesses changed their story. Mhmm. And we have to wonder why they changed why they changed their story. Yeah. And there's the issue of his army desertion. Yeah. That's another one. I don't know if I I I I don't know the backstory of that either. Right? I mean, he was at Fort Sill. I mean, that's where he was, you know, the three weeks prior. So I don't know that he deserted, but I don't know, you know, perhaps these charges brought on some facts or something of the sorts that the army was not pleased with. I don't know. I don't know. I'm yeah. But as is the case in so many crimes, as time passes, it becomes a distant memory. Witnesses move on, witnesses forget, and frankly, people go on with their lives. And in this case, the murder of Barry Leatherman is still open. Who killed Barry Barry Leatherman is a question many want to know. And perhaps law enforcement had the killers in their grasp initially. In November 1983, a woman was walking her dog when she stumbled on the body of Bill j Phillips in a ball field in the Como neighborhood. Como neighborhood is a predominantly historically black part of Fort Worth on the West Side. On 11/08/1983, William Sylvester Clark, Milton Punch, Bill Phillips, and a person known only as Bedford were riding and punched his car in the Como neighborhood. At some point during the ride, Phillips fell victim fell victim to a robbery by William Sylvester Clark, according to witnesses, who said, quote, Clark demanded money from Phillips and fired shots at him, hitting Punch in the hand and causing Punch to make a rapid exit from the car. Bedford also rapidly exited from the vehicle. Subsequently, Clark handed Punch some money and told him to count it. Clark directed Punch to remove the deceased's body from the car and undress him. Punch and Bedford removed the body from the car and left it on the ground. They removed the deceased's clothing and boots and placed him in the trunk of the car. The body was left in a ravine. They later returned to get the deceased credit card credit union identification. Clark, Punch, and Bedford then went to Clark's house where they spent the night. The next morning, the deceased clothing the deceased clothing was placed in a dumpster located in another part of town. Punch testified Clark told him that he would kill him if he ever told on him. Punch further testified that he did not know of Clark's plan to rob the deceased, that he did not know Clark had a gun till the shots were fired, and that he agreed to help dispose of the body and clothes only because he feared Clark would kill him if he did not. Taken from him was his wallet, boots, hat, and $250. Charged in this crime, convicted of this crime, and sentenced to life in prison was none other than William Sylvester Clark. A source familiar with this investigation described Clark as having a reputation for being a badass thug. And with what we have learned about Clark, this is possibly the most concise description. In May 1986, FWPD was dispatched to to a domestic disturbance at 2625 Prospect. When they when they arrived, they found Tommy j McDonald with a stab wound to his chest. McDonald was transported to John Peter Smith Hospital where he was pronounced dead from the stab wound. Charged in McDonald's death was his brother-in-law, Lewis Ivory Junior, the man first arrested in the death of Barry Leatherman. The verdict in that case is not known. However, a Lewis Ivery junior born in 1951 from the 4th Area is listed as a registered sex offender. The case disposition date was 2003. The victim, a 13 year old girl. That's where when we first saw the Jake and Jake and a and a and an associate of ours, Sean Perkey. Yeah. Right? Yeah. You tried to track down Lewis Ivory. Yeah. We tracked down the house. We went by the house. He wasn't there. We talked to it was a female. We had left a note for her to call, and and she called us back and said that she would have Lewis Ivory call us. He never did. Never heard from him. So he was still at the time, it was some more over off, like, '87 and Miller, if I recall correctly. Yeah. Yeah. That that does ring a bell. Yeah. So you remember the names Clarence Earl Russell. He he was one of those whose stories changed. Witness with one of the witnesses whose stories changed. He was charged in 1982 with delivering capsules containing cocaine to undercover officers on multiple occasions. In 2009, Clarence Earl Russell passed away. It appears as if Warren Kuczynski, another one of those witnesses Mhmm. Whose story has changed, he appears to have moved on to a productive life. There is redemption in this world. And what happened to Gary Bershom Jones? We don't know. So the case of the murder of Barry Leatherman remains unsolved officially. Officially, yes. But we have a pretty good idea that William Sylvester Clark pulled that trigger on 01/14/1970. Mhmm. And except for witnesses going back on what they initially told investigators, that case likely would have been solved by police. Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, the other thing with this, I mean, it's and it's like so many that we've covered. I mean, if this were to happen today or five years ago, I've never been to I've never, I mean, I've been through the parking lot at that Billingsley Field House, but I would assume that that thing is covered up in cameras. Right? Like, the the thought of these going unsolved for so long is not something that we see that often today, especially they have 300 with at least what 300 witnesses there. Right. I mean, that's all. That's a crap ton of people to have to talk to. Right? I mean, you know, obviously, were different. Think the core concept of investigating is relatively the same. But that would have taken a small contingency of of investigators to to work through that number of interviews. The other thing that's that on this Leatherman case, a couple things, if you remember, the whole reason we brought this back was due to the passing of Dave McGinnis a couple of weeks ago. Mhmm. Well, if you remember, our friend of the show, one Brian Estridge. Yeah. Tried to ask was was talking to Leatherman related to his time at TCU and things of the sort. He was talking to McGinnis. Yeah. To McGinnis, and and and we sent a list of questions, and McGinnis wanted nothing to do with this. He didn't want not not not saying that in a bad way. I think it was that traumatic for him. Right. Right. If you remember, he didn't wanna I mean, he didn't like, I don't wanna talk about it. Was was in short was what the answer was. That's right. Yeah. Think he wanted to stay far as far away from as possible. I think it's just a terrible traumatic experience for him. Yeah. But I mean, again, like I said, I mean, they Clark, Ivory, both, you know, thirteen, sixteen years later, both arrested, charged with serious crimes. I mean, you know, who did they have the right guy in place? I don't know. The other thing like, this is not a case you know, these older cases are hard to find what the disposition is. Right? This is not one that's listed on the unsolved list for Fort Worth PD. You know, there's not that many in in '19 in the seventh from '70 to '79, there's two there's like, seven or eight of them. This is not one of them. Right? I mean so, you know, the disposition on these, who knows? At the end of the day, nobody knows who killed Barry Leatherman. His family never knew. Right? His friends never knew. And and and, you know, it's not a knock on, you know, necessarily on the investigations or anything like that. I mean, I'm a would hope they were doing they were working with everything that they had, but, I mean, I I don't know. I mean, like I said, you you have this crime happen in April 2026. I don't think this is the outcome. You know, you arrest a guy. He gives a BS confession, toss it out, you get another guy. I mean, all kinds of I mean, like, the whole delay on trial. I mean, it's crazy stuff. So Yeah. And and at one point, I think it was the district attorney's office, the the Roberts, the assistant district attorney, who answering a reporter's question said, again, this is 1970, that he said, you know, we're not into throwing innocent people in jail or in prison. When he was asked why they had quit the case, which of course, prosecutors have a terrible reputation for doing anything just to get a conviction. And that certainly wasn't the case in this case. They felt like they did not have the goods to legitimately prosecute William Sylvester Clark, had a, you know, a state defense attorney, a public defender. Mhmm. So they probably could have convicted him anyway. Mhmm. Yeah. Who knows? I mean, who knows what was going on behind the scenes with that? I mean, none none of us will ever know. Right? I mean but like I said, definitely a lot different like most crimes, but, you know, this one in particular, much different of an outcome had that been today And unfortunate. Speaking of people who have terrible reputations, the federal government. Terrible reputation. Right. So I was looking a little bit earlier today on on strange federal laws. Okay. And this comes to us from our friends at Vargy Somerset, the fast growing, full service law firm in downtown Fort Worth. You trying to them to us? They should. Should, man. They absolutely should. So anyway, they did a blog down there a few years back on 13 federal crimes that are almost too bizarre to believe. Okay. In no particular order. Number one, transporting dentures across state lines. Okay. Is a crime for non dentists who make false teeth to ship their product out of state. Okay. Maximum sentence, one year in jail. K. As one says, this is this law is jaw dropping. I knew I knew some little one liner was coming. Some little zinger. Here's another one. Here's smoky smoky bear or Woodsy Owl without permission. It is illegal to use Smokey Bear, Woodsy Owl or their slogans. Only you can prevent forest fires and give a hoot, don't pollute for commercial purposes or profit without government permission. Violators face a maximum sentence of six months in prison. Okay. So we're not gonna be doing that. No. Here's a federal law that makes consulting, corresponding, or providing a pirate with provisions, a felony offense. Okay. Yeah. Like like a like a a sea pirate. Yeah. Yeah. Now, Jake, if you ever get caught doing this, you face a maximum sentence of three years in prison. A provision as in eye patch or a hook or something or I suspect core consulting corresponding or providing a pirate with provisions. Yeah. Yeah. Well, probably won't happen. Bologna sandwich. Yes. You've heard the branches of government. Right? Yes. Executive, the legislative, the judicial branches. Good job. Good job. Well, apparently, the branches of government have limits because there is a law on the books that makes it a federal crime to climb a tree at the Supreme Court. K. Now in defense of some of these laws, I mean, I do think there's another side to this story. Some of these are laws because people were doing it and were told not to do it. Where I mean, what else? Like, the denture an issue. Right? Yeah. At some point, like the denture one. Seemingly trivial. I'm not gonna argue that. But what if the dentures were made with some toxic material or something or the other? You know, I mean, there's there could be a reason for it. Trivial on the surface dumb? Yes. And is a guy who's climbing a tree as he eavesdropping on the Supreme Court? I don't know about that. Could be building a tree house in the on the sacred grounds of the Supreme Court. When's the last time you wrote a check? Last week. Really? Yeah. Yeah. They also write them from time to time. Did you know it's a federal law or it's against federal law to issue a check, note, or token for less than $1? I did not know this. You're risking six months in a slammer. Okay. I highly doubt anybody's ever been sentenced to that. Lights. There's a federal law. It's against federal law to quote unquote injure a government owned lamp. You can't you can't knock a you can't throw a rock and knock a knock a knock a light out. Six months behind bars. I mean, that that seems reasonable. Some of these have gotta be DC laws. Right? I mean It's reasonable. Yeah. I think that's reasonable. Did I ever tell you about the time? This was not even a year ago. As our fine city, and you know where I'm going with this. As our fine city is just getting ravished with issues, I was leaving my neighborhood, and I see a guy walking down the street holding a stop sign. Okay? You might be thinking, oh, just the stop sign. Like he stole it off the pole. No. I'm talking the sign, the pole, and the cement ball that was holding the pole in the ground. He's got this thing slung over his shoulder, all thinned out or something. I don't know what he was on. No shoes, no shirt, just cruising right down the street, man. Holding that sign. I could have called the cops, but frankly, we live in a city now where they're probably more than enough to respond. It might have taken them three hours to get there, and that is not a knock on them. That's a knock on a severely understaffed police agency in my opinion. I thought that had been approved. I don't think so. I will I think I could make the argument that in circa 02/2002, there were more officers patrolling the streets of West Fort Worth than there are today in 2026, and it was about half the size. Sounds like something we should check out. Make that make sense, John Henry. I wanna conclude on this. Need to we need to add when we release this, you we've gotta work in something of not that John Henry. I'm on a kick right now. As you know, I am a baseball fan, and I'm a Boston Red Sox fan. The Kansas City Royals come first, first and foremost every year. Next up, the Red Sox. But you've let leaped on to the Boston Red Sox bandwagon. No. No. No. No. No. This goes back to 1986, Red Sox versus Mets, watching Wade Boggs basically crying the dugout losing the World Series. Bill Buckner, I'm sure that rings a bell. Right? Oh, yeah. Well, big news comes out of their Game six. Game six. Big news comes out of their camp yesterday after I was just there on Thursday. Missed it. The firing of Alex Cora, the reassignment of Jason Veritek, and what my favorite thing has been are all of the memes because you shared the same name as the owner of the Boston Red Sox. And those the people of New England are not happy with a guy named John Henry right now. Not at all. And there's some funny ones going around. And every time, like, the the Prez old Dave Portnoy when he goes off on a tangent, just hearing Dave Portnoy saying f John Henry makes me laugh makes me laugh a lot. And I thought that was lot of that's there's a lot of that that's been gone that's that's been around, you know, but I've been told that for a lot of different circumstances. Yeah. Well, I'm sure For example, divorce. That'll that'll do that. Yeah. That'll do that. That'll do it. Yeah. Anyway, alright. Let's call it a day. Also, the other time, remember when you almost got attacked by the, I don't know, Albanian mafia member? I can't remember what they were calling him. That was great, man. Yes. Because you demeanor people what people don't know is this is your demeanor twenty four seven. There is no extreme excitement or sadness or anything else than what people see right here. And the thought of some mafia member trying to attack the John Henry because of something. I said, man, I don't know what what's going on with this. I feel like, I've seen that guy around, because there's there's there's some, Albanian guy who who will look at me strangely from time to time. Like, he recognizes me and I recognize him. I think he might have been in such an inebriated state that he doesn't recall the facts and circumstances behind his anger. I'm not sure who it was either, to be honest with you. But I I but I see a guy, I'm like, I wonder if that's the guy who wanted to kill me that one that one particular night. Yeah. He definitely did. He definitely did. Alright. Well, the good news is he didn't. Oh, yeah. You're right. I live to see another day, and, we're gonna call this a day, and we'll see you guys next week. Next week it is. Signal 51 Chronicles. Adios. Ladder. This is a Stolen Water Media production.